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THE 



LAND OF FAIR PLAY 



HOW AMERICA IS GOVERNED 



BY 

GEOFFREY PARSONS 



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NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1919 



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Copyright, 1919, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ^ 



Published September, 1919 



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PREFACE 

We are all starting out afresh, on a new path, as a 
result of the Great War. Nothing is or can be the same 
for any one, for men and women or for boys and girls. 
One of the greatest changes is in our attitude toward 
our nation, our idea of government. We lived in an 
easy-going world before the war and we took much for 
granted. We were vaguely grateful for freedom, for 
our America; but the extent of our blessings, the cost 
of their creation in the past, the need of our ever-pres- 
ent support if they are to continue, had faded into the 
background of our minds. 

The war brought all this back. We saw suddenly 
that America was not just a convenient servant to fetch 
our mails and police our streets but the sacred giver of 
everything we held dear — home, family, friends, the 
right to work, to play, to be happy, to live; and that 
as our protector, our great mother, we owed her our 
uttermost love and service, if need be, our lives. 

This book aims to describe America as the war has 
revealed her anew. It aims to picture the ideas under- 
lying our government and the machinery embodying 
those ideas. It aims, beyond this, to make clear the 
great, unseen services that America renders each of us, 
and the active devotion each of us must yield in return 
if America is to endure. 

Among the hundreds of books on American govern- 



vi PREFACE 

ment few have attempted to state the essential fact 
and theory as simply as is attempted here. There are 
excellent story-books about fire-engines and street-clean- 
ing and mounted policemen. There are admirable 
handbooks of governmental machinery fitted for the 
last years of high school and for college. For the 
younger boy or girl government has been chiefly por- 
trayed as an affair of fires, garbage, and runaway horses. 
That the great plan and purpose of America should be 
planted in each generation as early as possible is a new 
realization born of our experience in the war. For- 
tunately the playground has built up a parallel and a 
text as just and simple as they are illuminating. The 
family has been the traditional starting-point of writers 
on civics. But the analogy is hopelessly confusing and 
quite without reality for anybody's mind, young or 
old. The basis of what follows, on the other hand, lies 
ready and clear in the mind of every American boy 
and girl, the lesson of that first and best school of gov- 
ernment, the playground. 

The Constitution is given in full and referred to fre- 
quently. If the reader will make some acquaintance 
with its text he will already have done much. The first 
goal in the understanding of American government is 
a sense of the vital part played in our lives and hap- 
piness by this "living voice of the people." 

G. P. 

Rye, New York, July 1, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 
CHAPTER 

I. The Spirit of America 1 

II. The Captain, the Umpire, and the Rules . 3 

III. The Team 7 

IV. Majority Rule H 

V. The Laws of Freedom and Fair Play ... 14 

VI. The Constitution 22 

VII. The Duties of an American 25 

VIII. Home Rule 30 

IX. The President 38 

X. Congress 53 

XI. The Federal Courts 63 

XII. The Three Branches of Our Government . 66 

XIII. What the Nation Does for Us 68 

XIV. The Government of a State 86 

XV. What The State Does for Us 103 

XVI. Political Parties and Elections .... 114 

XVII. Taxation 129 

•• 
Vll 



vin CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. Courts and Trials 139 

XIX. The Making of the Constitution .... 155 

XX. Your Government ......... 169 

Constitution of the United States . . . 173 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Choosing Up" Frontispiece 

PACING PAGE 

A Close Decision at Home Plate 4 

The Battleship Michigan Firing a Broadside 40 

The White House, Washington, D. C 44 

President Wilson Delivering His War Message to Congress, April 

2,1917 50 

The Capitol, Washington, D. C 54 

Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court 64 

U. S. Transport Leviathan Entering New York Harbor .... 70 

Irrigable Land in Washington State Before Reclamation ... 80 

Apple Orchard, Washington State; the Result of Reclamation . . 80 

Arrowrock Dam, the Highest in the World, Near Boise, Idaho . . 82 

A Road Before Improvement 98 

The Same Road After Improvement 98 

A Rescue in the Park 106 

Patrolman and Ambulance Surgeon Caring for Victim of an Accident 106 

Fireman Rescuing a Child 1 " 8 

Interior of a Polling-Place 116 

The "Party-Column" Type of Ballot Used in New York Before 

1914 120 

The Modified Massachusetts Type of Ballot Used in New York, 

1914 122 

A Court-Room 146 

Independence Hall, Philadelphia . 158 

ix 



CHAPTER I 

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA 

The Spirit of Fair Play. — Every American boy and girl 
learns on the playground the true spirit of America, 
which is nothing else than fair play, fair play for every 
one, big and little, neither bullies nor cheats allowed. 
You can sum up the whole object of our American Gov- 
ernment by saying that it seeks to give every American, 
man or woman, boy or girl, rich or poor, an equal 

chance. 

Every boy and girl in America wishes to win, to suc- 
ceed, to become great and famous. There is more am- 
bition in America than in any other country in the 
world. That is because every boy and girl has a better 
chance in America than in any other country in the 
world. Our country is far from perfect; we have our 
faults and injustices, as has every country. There are 
cheats and bullies in business as in play. But we try 
to keep the game of life fair and we have succeeded in 
making America the land of opportunity beyond any 
other spot. 

The poorest boy can become President, has become 

President. Abraham Lincoln, who split fence-rails as a 

farmer's boy, lived to become our greatest and most 

honored President. Every position, every success, 

stands open for every boy to try for. Every girl can 

learn as much as she will and enter any business or pro- 

l 



2 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

fession or work that appeals to her. Andrew Carnegie, 
who started out as a messenger-boy in Pittsburg at the 
age of fourteen and became our greatest steel manufac- 
turer, is but one of hundreds of American boys who 
have won their way to the highest success. 

Now it is fair play, and only fair play, that makes 
this possible, that gives this chance to rich and poor 
alike. As in games, so in work we try our hardest to 
win, to succeed. But we play fair. We obey the rules. 
We give every boy and girl a fair start. We put bullies 
and cheats out of the game and we aim to give every 
one an equal chance to succeed. That is the spirit of 
America. No one is a true American who does not try 
to live up to it. 

There is no room for king or noble or any favored 
class in this free country. Every American is as good 
as his brains and character and manners, and no better. 



CHAPTER II 
THE CAPTAIN, THE UMPIRE, AND THE RULES 

Captain and President. — When a group of boys wish 
to start a ball team one of the first things they do is to 
choose a captain. No team can play well without a 
captain, and a good one. He decides where each boy 
shall play, directs the practice, makes out the batting 
list, and gives the orders in a game — when to play up 
for a batter, when to change pitchers, and so on. He 
is the general of the forces in the field, and a good cap- 
tain of a ball team is quite as important as a good gen- 
eral in a battle. 

The President of the United States is the captain of 
the country. He does for the whole country very 
much the kind of things that your captain does for 
your baseball team. The country selects him to be 
their general, their leader. If we are good Americans 
we obey him to the death. If he asks the men to en- 
list they do so. If he asks the women to save food in 
war time they do so. If he asks us to buy War Sav- 
ings Stamps we do so. If he asks us to pay a tax we 
do so. Of course, he has a tremendous task and all 
sorts of things to do. It is a very much more difficult 
thing to lead a nation of 100,000,000 men, women, and 
children than to lead a team of nine ball-players. But 
he is chosen by the people of the country much as you 

3 



4 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

choose "your baseball captain, "and he leads the people 
much as your captain leads you. 

Umpire and Judge. — Next is the umpire. You can 
play a small game without an umpire, but there is 
likely to be trouble and dispute over close decisions, 
and no big game is ever played without an umpire. He 
belongs to neither team and is chosen to call balls and 
strikes and fouls and outs fairly, without favoring either 

side. 

Our judges are umpires chosen to make fair decisions 
in the matters of business and life. They are elected 
because they are fair-minded men and fitted to hear 
both sides of a dispute and decide fairly which man has 
broken a law. If a player in a baseball game spikes a 
fielder intentionally, the umpire punishes him by put- 
ting him out of the game. Just the same, if a tough 
knocks you down on the street, the judge punishes him 
by sending him to jail. 

Rules and Laws.— This brings us to the question of 
rules, of laws. Have you ever seen the printed rules of 
baseball? They take up many pages of fine print. 
Most of them you know without thinking— how many 
strikes a batter is allowed, which way to run around 
the bases, and so on. But other rules, especially some 
of the newer changes, puzzle the most experienced 
players. The umpire is trained to know all the rules 
and to hold all the players to them. 

Now stop and think what a hopeless mess a game of 
baseball would be without rules that every one had to 
follow. Each player would be doing as he pleased, a 
big boy who was a bully could stay at bat all day if he 



THE CAPTAIN, THE UMPIRE, AND THE RULES 5 

wished to, and a boy who wished to cheat could be as 
unfair as he cared to without any one to stop him. There 
would be no fair play for anybody. 

It is rules and obedience to them that make fair 
play possible. The laws are nothing more than the 
rules of life, by which every honest man and woman is 
glad to live. Most of them every boy and girl knows 
and obeys without thinking because they are the sim- 
ple rules of right and wrong. It is a crime to steal, it 
is a crime to attack any one. You can see that life 
would be a wild scramble without laws and courts to 
enforce them. Thieves and cheats would have an open 
field and fair play would be utterly impossible. 

Freedom Through Laws. — That is what American free- 
dom means. It is not freedom to do exactly as we 
please, for that would produce anything but real free- 
dom. It is a freedom to do our utmost to succeed 
provided we play fair. As a matter of fact, no one who 
lives in the same city or village or county with other 
people can be entirely free to do what he wishes. Some 
one has said that "only a fish is wholly free" and that 
is about true. What America tries to do is to give just 
as much freedom as possible and give it to every one 
alike. The result is that America is the freest country 
in the world. 

Who makes the rules and laws of fair play? In base- 
ball it is men chosen by the big leagues who meet once 
a year. In our government it is our lawmakers, or 
legislators, the Congress that meets every year at Wash- 
ington, and these are chosen by the votes of everybody 
just as is the President. 



6 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

The Three Branches of American Government. — That is 
the main outline of our American Government, and 
you see how much its plan resembles the plan of a base- 
ball game. You cannot have a successful baseball team 
without (1) a leader; you cannot play a baseball game 
peaceably and fairly without (2) an umpire; and you 
cannot possibly play baseball without (3) rules. That 
is the precise theory of our government. 

What Government Does. — The rules of baseball re- 
late to only one thing, a baseball game. Government 
touches our whole daily life, waking or sleeping, our 
business, our health, our safety, our happiness. It in- 
cludes all those things that we can best do together: the 
building of roads; fire and police protection day and 
night; the delivery of mail; the coining of money; fight- 
ing a common enemy with an army and navy, and so 
forth. In a savage country every man carries a club 
and is his own policeman. In a civilized country all 
unite and hire a policeman to act for all. It is more 
convenient and more efficient. Government is the 
organization we use to do all these things in common. 

So the reach of our government is very wide. But 
the goal that it aims for and the spirit of everything 
that it does, is fair play. 



CHAPTER III 

THE TEAM 

Democracy— All these are important, the captain, the 
umpire, and the rules. But you cannot play ball with- 
out a team. After all is said, it is the whole nine that 
wins a game or loses it. It is the team that does the 

work. . 

Now in a well-run ball team this is recognized and 

the team runs things. The captain is chosen by vote 

of all the players. The most important questions are 

put before the team for decision. The captain runs the 

team not to please himself or any one or two players, 

but for the whole nine. That is the American way. ^ It 

is the democratic way. It is the way the American 

nation is governed. 

Despotism —You all may have seen teams which were 
not run in this way— in which one big boy, something 
of a bully, got together a team of smaller boys and 
made them do as he wanted, for instance. The smaller 
boys lacked the spirit to stand up for their rights and 
so they received just what the captain chose to give 
them. That is un-American. It is the way a despot 
rules, an emperor like the Czars of Russia, or, to go 
farther back in history, Henry VIII, of England (1509- 

1547), and Louis XIV, of France (1643-1715). 
Anarchy— Suppose, on the other hand, you tried to 

run a team without any leader. Probably no boys 

7 



8 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

were ever foolish enough to attempt this plan, but sup- 
pose some boys did. You can imagine what confusion 
and quarrelling there would be and how poor a game 
such a team would play. Every boy would do as he 
pleased and boss just as many other boys as he could. 
We saw how important rules and an umpire are. Take 
away the captain, too, and you have exactly the con- 
dition known as anarchy, which means the attempt to 
run a country with no government whatever. Cer- 
tain theorists, impressed by the defects of government, 
have urged anarchy as a solution of all our troubles. 
But, as you can see, the remedy would be far worse than 
the disease. We should have a whole nation of despots, 
every one ruling himself as he pleased and just as many 
of his friends and neighbors as he could. 

Aristocracy. — Sometimes it is not one boy who runs 
a team but three or four boys. Perhaps they have 
more money than the others and can buy bats and balls 
and masks, and therefore think they have the right to 
tell the others what to do. Perhaps they are older and 
bigger than the rest. Well, that is not American, either. 
When it comes to electing a captain or deciding any 
important matter, every player on the team ought to 
have his say. Big or little, rich or poor, they are all 
players; it is their team, and they ought to run it. 
That is the theory of America. 

When, instead, a few put their ideas over on the rest, 
you have what is called an aristocracy. The word 
means a government by the best. Occasionally a rul- 
ing class of aristocrats are the best, but usually they 
only think they are the best because they are the richest 
and the most powerful. Atjanyjrate, even if the aris- 



THE TEAM 



tocrats who rule a country happened to be the wisest 
and finest, it is the American theory and the right 
theory that, with the best intentions, they could not 
know what was best for their poorer and weaker neigh- 
bors, that every man has a right to decide his own 
affairs, and that no man has a right to rule any other 



man. 



England, France, America, and Germany.— A typical 
aristocracy was England at the time of the American 
Revolution. George III was not a despot, because the 
nobility and upper classes of the country shared the 
power of governing with him. But the working people 
of England had nothing to say whatever in the govern- 
ment. Power belonged only to nobles and landowners. 
A limited monarchy is another name for such a govern- 
ment, since the power of the monarch or king is not 
absolute, but is limited by the power of others. 

Do not make the mistake of thinking that England 
of to-day is either a despotism or an aristocracy. It is 
a democratic monarchy and its government is fully as 
democratic as our own. It is a limited monarchy in 
which the limits have swallowed the monarch. He re- 
mains simply as a figurehead to symbolize the unity of 
the nation and represent it on state occasions. The 
real head of England is the prime minister, who acts 
for the people of England just as our President acts for 
the American people. 

That is the normal growth of governments, away 
from despotism, through limited monarchies to democ- 
racy. France and America have arrived at complete 
democracy, in name as well as in fact. England has 
reached democracy in fact but not in name. Germany, 



10 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

at the time of the Great War, was still a long way from 
democracy. Her Kaiser had much of the power of a 
despot. The people were allowed to vote and elect 
legislators, but the power of these legislators was small. 
Next to Russia, Germany and Austria possessed in 1914 
the most despotic governments in Europe. 

The Peopled Rule. — In America the only rulers are 
the people. As we have seen, they elect a President to 
lead them, legislators to make new laws or rules for 
them, and judges to act as umpires for them when laws 
are dipputed. But the President, the legislators, and 
the juages are simply the agents of the people to carry 
out the wishes of the people. The Constitution of the 
United States, the highest law of the land, begins with 
the words: "We, the people of the United States . . . 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America." When a criminal is arrested or 
punished the order reads not in the name of the judge 
or the officer, but in the name of "the people." 

"Of the people, by the people, for the people" was 
Abraham Lincoln's description of the American system 
of government, and it is the best description there is. 

A Republic. — America is both a democracy and a 
republic. It is a democracy because the people rule it. 
It is a republic because the people rule it through repre- 
sentatives. The other kind of popular rule is sometimes 
called a "pure democracy," and in it the people meet and 
run their government directly without electing any offi- 
cers to act for them. This sort of democracy is possible 
only in a small community like ancient Athens or a 
modern New England town. 



CHAPTER IV 

MAJORITY RULE 

Government by Majority.— Like most of the long words 
of government, "majority" rule is a thing which every 
American boy is so familiar with that he takes it as 
a matter of course. If there is a dispute in your team 
over anything, who shall be captain, what team you 
will play next, where you will play, you all say what 
you want and what the most of you want, that you 
all do. If eight vote one way and one the other, you 
all do as the eight wish. If seven vote one way and 
two the other, you all do as the seven wish. If six 
vote one way and three another, you all do as the six 
wish. If five vote one way and four another, you still, 
all nine of you, do as the five wish. Those who are 
outvoted swallow their ideas and do as the rest prefer. 
That is all there is to majority rule. (" Majority " 
comes from the Latin word "major" which means 

"greater.") 

I Won't Play. — It is a simple idea, but it is at the 
bottom of all government by the people, and unless a 
people understand it and live by it they cannot possibly 
run a successful government. You know how it is in a 
group of boys too young or too tough to play fair. In 
such a crowd it is impossible to have a good baseball 
team or to play any game that is worth while. There 

is wrangling and fighting and sulking all the time. "I 

11 



12 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

won't play unless I can have my way" is the talk of 
the boy who is outvoted. Or if he is a bully, he puts 
up his fists and threatens to fight those who disagree 
with him. 

There are certain young nations so unfitted for popu- 
lar government that they behave exactly like these dis- 
orderly boys. Their people do not understand the 
first principle of majority rule. Every little while we 
used to read of a revolution in a Central American 
country. That simply meant that the side which was 
outvoted at an election had seized the government by 
force of arms. No great issue of right and wrong was 
involved. The revolutionists simply refused to "play" 
unless they could run things. As you can imagine, 
there is no happiness or comfort or progress or business 
success in a country thus given over to riot and blood- 
shed. 

The Right of Revolution. — There is one other point 
to remember. The time does come, once in a long 
while, when it is not only necessary but one's sacred 
duty to resist a government. This has been called "the 
right of revolution," and our own America was founded 
in just this way, as you have learned in your histories. 
Suppose in your crowd of boys the leaders tried to cheat 
you or steal from you. It would be your duty to 
resist and fight to the limit and break away altogether 
rather than submit. So in a nation the government 
is sometimes tyrannical and unjust, and when all peace- 
able protest fails of relief a courageous and self-respect- 
ing people must and will fight as did our ancestors in 
the Revolution. 



MAJORITY RULE 13 

But in government, as in play, fighting is a last resort, 
and no people are fit for self-government unless they are 
trained to understand that save where a vital question 
of right and justice is involved, the government must 
have its way and the people must peaceably accept its 
decisions. 

The Dangers of Revolution. — The American colonies 
were used to a large measure of self-government, and 
having declared their independence, quickly set up an 
orderly and secure rule. Aside from their war for free- 
dom there was little disturbance or bloodshed. Other 
revolutions have not been so fortunate. The French 
Revolution of 1789 lasted through many long and bloody 
years, while parties rose and fell and one popular tyrant 
succeeded another. The Russian Revolution went 
through the same bloody confusion. The Bolshevist 
government originated as one of the most dangerous 
forms of despotism, rule by a class. Such a government 
is as much opposed to the American idea of rule by all 
the people as a despotism like that of the Czars. 



CHAPTER V 

THE LAWS OF FREEDOM AND FAIR PLAY 

American Liberty.— Liberty is in the air we breathe 
in America. It is so much a part of our lives that we 
seldom think of it. We take it for granted, like the 
sky and a clear wind and food and drink. 

But those who came to America from the dark coun- 
tries of Europe, from old Russia before the Revolution 
and the downfall of the Czar, from Germany, from Aus- 
tria, feel this liberty as something new and strange and 
wonderful. They feel that they are coming out of the 
dark into the light, from a house with low ceilings and 
narrow walls into the free and open air. 

We should all understand this liberty of ours, whence 
it came and how we can keep it, for it is the most pre- 
cious gift we have. 

The Five Rights.— There are five chief rights belong- 
ing to every American, old and young, that make Ameri- 
can freedom what it is. They are: 

1. Personal safety and freedom. 

2. Religious freedom. 

3. Free speech. 

4. Safety of property. 

5. Trial by jury. 

i. Personal Safety and Freedom.— In the little town 
of Zabern in Germany, in 1913, a lieutenant, of noble 

14 



THE LAWS OF FREEDOM AND FAIR PLAY 15 

birth, struck a lame cobbler with his sword because the 
poor man had laughed at him. There was a great to-do 
over the attack, but the Kaiser upheld the lieutenant, 
and he was never punished in any way. It was held 
that under the German law he had done entirely right 
in hitting the lame cobbler. 

That was a very brutal and outrageous case. But 
the same kind of interference with liberty happened 
constantly in Germany under her militarist rule. The 
German word "verboten" means " forbidden," and 
every way that a German turned, to play or to work, 
he found something "verboten." In his home, on the 
street, in business, he was surrounded by harsh rules 
and brutal army officers and nobles and royalty, to 
whom he was forced to give way. Nowhere was he a 
free man and his own master. 

Now, in America we can live as we please, safely and 
securely. Every man, woman, and child is protected 
from arrest and attack. We have no nobles and royalty 
to bow to. No officer of our army and navy would 
dream of slashing a civilian to make him respectful. 
The policeman is your friend and protector. Our only 
rules are those necessary to punish wrong-doers, and to 
see that there is fair play, so that everybody has an 
equal chance to succeed. 

An American home has a peculiar degree of protec- 
tion. "A man's house is his castle" is the old English 
phrase, and this liberty, like many others, we inherited 
direct from our English forebears. The police cannot 
enter your home without a court order. An American 
home is a sacred spot that the law protects. 



16 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

2. Religious Freedom. — We can go to church where 
we will. That does not sound like anything extraordi- 
nary to an American. Of course, we can go to church 
where we choose. But in many countries of the Old 
World there is no religious liberty at all. In old Russia 
the Jews led a hunted life because of their religious 
faith. They were cursed and abused and imprisoned 
and killed by the hundreds and thousands. They were 
kept virtual prisoners in a certain part of Russia called 
the Pale. 

In America the Jew has his synagogue just as others 
have their churches. He is not only free to worship as 
he wills, but his worship is no handicap in any respect. 
He can aspire to any success or office. So it is of all of 
us, Protestant, Catholic, Jew. Most Americans have a 
strong religious faith, but they feel that religion is 
something each man must decide for himself, and they 
do not dream of forcing anybody to believe as they do, 
or of punishing anybody for a strange belief. 

3. Free Speech. — Free speech is another precious part 
of American liberty. It means that Americans can 
meet whenever they want to and talk over what they 
will. If they do not like their government they can 
meet and say so. If they wish a law changed they can 
meet and say so. Free writing is included. That means 
that American newspapers can speak of anything they 
think is wrong and say why, and nobody can stop them. 
The only limit is that you must say and print the truth. 
You must not misstate the facts. Lying is against the 
law for grown-ups, just as much as for children. 

Compare this with Germany. The German news- 



THE LAWS OF FREEDOM AND FAIR PLAY 17 

papers could not print the truth about the Great War. 
They had to print exactly what the Kaiser and his men 
ordered them to print. The First Battle of the Marne 
was not told about at all in the German papers. 
Throughout the war the German people were lied to 
and deceived in their newspapers by order of the Kaiser. 

You can see how important free speech is to a people 
wishing to be free and to be their own masters. Unless 
public men can tell the truth and newspapers can print 
the truth, the people cannot know what is going on, 
whom to trust and how to vote. The control of speech 
and newspapers and books is one of the bulwarks of 
autocracy. Free speech is the beginning of all free 
government. 

4. Safety of Property. — Property is anything you own 
— a postage-stamp, a bicycle, a Liberty Bond, a house 
and lot. The right to own things, to have them for 
your very own so that nobody can take them away, is 
very important. Unless a man can keep what he earns 
and buys with his savings he can never get ahead in 
the world, and he will always be dependent upon some 
rich man for charity. He can never be free. In old 
Russia almost all the land was owned by a few great 
nobles and rich men, and these took good care that the 
Russian peasants should not own any land or much of 
any property. Thus the peasants of old Russia were 
little more than slaves. 

In the Middle Ages throughout Europe kings and 
nobles helped themselves to taxes very much as they 
desired. The peasants and tradesmen and artisans 
were obliged to give up a huge slice of their earnings 



18 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

and property to their overlord. That was the feudal 
system, and the history of democracy is the history of 
how the people slowly got the better of their kings and 
nobles, and gained the right to hold their property 
unmolested. 

In America what a man earns is his own and no one 
can take it away from him. With it he can buy what 
he chooses, a house, land, anything. He must pay 
taxes, but they must be fair and reasonable. If his land 
is needed for some public improvement, of benefit to 
every one, a railroad or a school, the State can take it, 
but it must pay full value for it. The right to succeed, 
we might fairly call this right to own property without 
interference from any one. 

5. Trial by Jury. — In past centuries despotic kings 
ran the courts as they pleased, and sent anybody to 
prison or beheaded anybody they wished. Slowly the 
people have won fair and impartial trials. Trial by 
jury, that is, trial by twelve of his neighbors, is the 
right of every American when he is accused of a serious 
crime. No judge can convict him, no police officer, no 
politician, no rich and powerful man. Plain American 
citizens like himself alone can send him to jail. 

Moreover, the trial must be public. Secret trials 
have always been the favorite weapon of a despot. 
"Star Chamber proceedings" is now a common name 
for any 'secret decision by any group of people. It 
dates back to 1487 in England, when Henry VII founded 
a special court that sat in secret, tortured prisoners, 
and condemned them without a hearing. It is said to 
have sat in a room with gold stars on the ceiling, and 



THE LAWS OF FREEDOM AND FAIR PLAY 19 

thus was named the Star Chamber. It was abolished 

in 1641. 

Also the prisoner cannot be compelled to testify 
against himself. Other features of American justice 
will be described later. You can see how important a 
part of American fair play is trial by jury, with all it 

signifies. 

Sources of Our Liberty.— These rights of American 
liberty did not come into being suddenly. They were 
the outgrowth of five centuries of struggle in England 
against tyranny. Our revolution freed the colonies 
from unjust rule by an English king and gave them 
the chance to develop as a great, free nation. But the 
foundations of personal liberty had already been laid 
in England. Later on (in Chapter XIX) we shall see 
that even our new form of government was not a wholly 
strange and untried invention, but was the natural out- 
growth of all the experience of the past. There, indeed, 
was the greatest feat of our forefathers, the ability that 
saved them from the wreck and ruin that have followed 
in the wake of most revolutions. They had the courage 
to fight to the death for freedom ; and they also had the 
common sense to know that freedom by itself, without 
wise laws to control it and insure fair play, is nothing 
and that wise laws cannot be invented overnight, but 
must come as the slow growth of centuries of custom. 

Magna Carta and Bill of Rights. — These are the two 
great landmarks in the English struggle for personal 
liberty and every American fives under their safeguards, 
for their provisions were brought over by the colonists 
and written into the law of our land. Magna Carta, or 



20 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

the Great Charter, was signed by King John, at Runny- 
mede, near London, in 1215. He had been tyrannical 
and cruel until the nation could stand his oppression 
no longer. So the strong men of England drew up this 
statement of their rights and compelled the king to sign 
it. It is the foundation and beginning of our liberty. 
The right to a prompt and fair trial, the right to trial by 
jury, the forbidding of taxation except as imposed by 
the people's representatives, and the right to local self- 
government are among the great rights which it declared. 

The battle was not over and tyrannical kings repeat- 
edly broke the rules laid down by Magna Carta. Final- 
ly, in 1689, when William III was made king, the Bill 
of Rights was drawn up. Free speech, the right to bear 
arms, and a number of other important rights were 
added to the common privileges of every Englishman by 
this great document. 

Religious liberty had not been won at this time in 
England and it was religious persecution that drove 
many of the colonists to seek their fortune in America. 
There was persecution in many of the colonies and com- 
plete religious freedom was gained only after a long 
struggle. 

Civil and Political Rights. — The rights we have been 
describing are often called civil rights, the word civil here 
meaning common to all members of a nation. They are 
contrasted with political rights, that is, the right to share 
in the government, to vote, and to hold office. Our fore- 
fathers found that the best way to protect their civil 
rights (that is, the rights of personal liberty we have 
described) was to gain political rights. So they insisted 



THE LAWS OF FREEDOM AND FAIR PLAY 21 

upon the right to vote, and that is how our American 
theory developed that government should be run not 
by a few people or any class but by all the people. But 
the distinction still remains. All Americans, men, 
women, boys, and girls, have civil rights simply be- 
cause they are Americans; but only those Americans 
have the "elective franchise," that is, the privilege of 
voting, whom the voters think qualified to vote. No one 
under twenty-one, for instance, is permitted to vote; 
but every boy and girl has exactly the same rights of 
personal liberty as any grown man or woman. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE CONSTITUTION 

The Constitution. — We saw that the object of all laws, 
and the reason we have judges to say what they mean, 
is to secure freedom and fair play, just as the rules 
and the umpire secure fair play in a ball game. But 
these great rights of freedom we have just described 
have a special importance. They are the foundation 
upon which all other rights rest. With them our free- 
dom is secure. Without them, without any one of 
them, our whole system of liberty and fair play might 
crash to the ground. Therefore special safeguards have 
been thrown about them. They have been set apart 
in a sacred document, called the Constitution, to stand 
like the ten commandments, above all other law. The 
general plan of our government forms part of the Con- 
stitution. These rights of the people form the rest. 
Every American boy and girl should understand exactly 
how the Constitution works, how it is protected, and 
what it does for each of us. 

Its Safeguards. — Any ordinary law can be changed at 
any time by Congress without much delay. But the 
Constitution is different. It can be changed only after 
long discussion and by the overwhelming vote of the 
people. A bare majority of legislators can pass a law 
in Congress. It takes the vote of two-thirds of the 
legislators to offer an amendment (that is, a change) 

22 



THE CONSTITUTION 23 

to the Constitution; and after the amendment has 
passed Congress it must be approved by three-fourths 
of the States, that is, 36 out of 48. This procedure in- 
sures long discussion and makes certain that no change 
can be made in the Constitution unless the country is 
overwhelmingly for it. 

The Two Reasons. — There are two reasons for these 
safeguards thrown about the Constitution. One is that 
the Constitution holds the thought of our wisest and 
noblest men, from Washington down. We must not 
lightly change what they have wrought. There must 
be thorough debate by every one and general agreement 
before we act. There must be appeal to second thoughts, 
which are often the best. There must be no hasty tink- 
ering with so solemn a document, the guardian of our 
lives and liberties. 

The second reason goes back to what has been said 
about majorities and tyranny and the right of revolu- 
tion. America is the oldest republic on a large scale in 
the world. It has weathered every storm, very largely 
because our Constitution prevents evil acts by majori- 
ties. The Constitution is binding not only on you and 
me, but upon Congress as well. Our legislators cannot 
pass a law taking away any of the rights and liberties 
protected by the Constitution. Or, rather, they can pass 
such a law, but as soon as the Supreme Court of the 
United States decides that the law attempts to do what 
the Constitution forbids, the law is wiped out. That is 
what "unconstitutional" means. That is the great ser- 
vice that our Supreme Court of the United States, the 
most powerful court in the world, does for each of us. 



24 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

This plan of a Constitution binding upon every one and 
of a court to enforce it was an American invention, and 
we can all be proud and thankful that our forefathers 
had the mind and skill to create this new and wise 
system. There is no other country in the world where 
personal rights are held so sacred or so carefully pro- 
tected by the laws. No mere majority can ever take 
away our liberties or our rights. 

The Supreme Law. — You can see why the Constitu- 
tion is called the supreme law of the land. It stands 
above all other laws and above all our officers of govern- 
ment: Presidents, judges, legislators, policemen, every 
one. It is the faithful, tireless protector of every 
American. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN 

Our Five Duties. — America gives her citizens more than 
any country in the world, and she expects more from 
them. That is a general rule of life. You cannot get 
something for nothing in this world, either in govern- 
ment or anything else. 

The five great things that every American must do 
for his country are these: 

1. Vote. 

2. Pay taxes. 

3. Do jury duty. 

4. Fight. 

5. Obey the laws. 

i. The Vote. — The first duty of every American over 
twenty-one is to vote. The actual voting takes only a 
few minutes on Election Day, which comes the first 
Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But the 
duty is much more than that. You must vote wisely, 
and that means you must read the newspapers and keep 
track of what is going on, you must discuss it all with 
your friends and neighbors, you must attend political 
meetings and hear the candidates (that is, the men run- 
ning for office) tell what they intend to do. It takes a 
keen, wide-awake mind, that can read and talk English, 
to vote intelligently. 

Moreover, voting is more than just the few minutes' 

25 



26 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

work once a year. In order to vote you must first 
register, which means going on a certain day and put- 
ting your name down on the voting list. (This is to 
prevent fraud at the election.) Also you ought to vote 
at the primaries, the party elections, held some time 
before Election Day, at which the candidates of the 
parties are chosen. Also there are other elections than 
the main one in November at which you ought to vote. 
If you live in a city there is a city election. If you live 
in a village there is a village election. There is also in 
many cases an annual school meeting which elects the 
school board. All these elections will be described in 
more detail later. The point now to remember is that 
a good American citizen takes a constant interest in his 
government, follows all the elections carefully, and 
votes honestly and as wisely as he knows how at each 
election. No democracy can be a success unless its 
voters help in this fashion by conscientious, wise voting. 

2. Taxes. — A tax is exactly like a collection or offer- 
ing in church — or the sum you pay when every member 
of your team chips in to buy a new ball or bat. Gov- 
ernment costs much. Your President, your judges, your 
legislators, your firemen, your policemen, must be paid 
salaries. Your army and navy must be paid for. Your 
streets must be paved, your street-lamps lit, your pub- 
lic schools run. And so on. All this runs up to a tre- 
mendous sum, as you can imagine. But it is divided 
among everybody, and nobody has to pay a very large 
sum except the very rich. 

Taxes are not easy or pleasant to pay. In war time, 
when there is a great army to feed and equip and a 



THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN 27 

great navy to build and supply, taxes are a heavy bur- 
den. But every loyal American pays his share fairly 
and gladly, for he knows that without an army and 
navy we should be conquered and lose all the bless- 
ings America gives us. The man who tries to dodge his 
tax does not deserve to be an American. 

3. Jury Duty. — We saw that trial by jury was one 
of the great blessings of American liberty. Now you 
cannot have juries without men to serve on them. 
Therefore every American must take his turn when the 
court summons him to act as a juror. It means the loss 
of some time from a man's business or job, but that is 
part of the price we gladly pay for the benefit of safe, 
fair, and humane trials. 

4. Fighting. — The duty of every American to fight 
for his country when she is in peril is as old as the 
nation. Our country, with all its wonderful liberties, 
was born of heroic fighting. Without the glorious cour- 
age of the Revolution, the years of hard, bitter fighting 
against heavy odds, there would be no America to-day. 
In 1812 and again in 1861 the nation was preserved 
from destruction by the sword. In 1917 we entered 
the Great War "to make the world safe for democracy," 
as President Wilson declared. Our ships had been 
torpedoed at sea and our citizens drowned. The Ger- 
man threat of conquest was aimed not only against Bel- 
gium, France, Italy, Russia, England, but against the 
United States and every other free people. Once more 
we had to fight for our liberties — and this time, as well, 
for the liberties of the world. Conscription, the call of 
every fighting man to the colors, was a magnificent sue- 



28 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

cess in America because this duty of the citizen was 
universally felt. There was practically no opposition, no 
holding back. All America went to war gladly to defend 
those liberties which are more precious than life itself. 

5. Obey the Laws. — Boys and girls with the right idea 
of sport and fair play do not try to cheat their oppo- 
nents. Whether the umpire is looking or not they 
play fair. They feel that it is dishonorable to win by 
cheating. As a matter of fact, a game played by cheats 
is about as unpleasant as a game can be. No umpire 
can keep order or prevent the rules from being broken. 
It is not really a game, at all, but a free-for-all stealing 
match. 

Just so, a nation of lawbreakers is no nation at all. 
It is a free-for-all fight, with the strongest getting away 
with everything worth having. It is only because 
America is a nation of law-observers with only a very 
few lawbreakers that our government is a success. Try 
to imagine what your street would be like if everybody 
along it was a burglar and a murderer. Life would not 
be worth living and no number of policemen could make 

life safe. 

Therefore every American is in honor bound to obey 
the law. Arrest and punishment may or may not be 
around the corner if he breaks the law. The good 
American obeys the law because that is his duty. Obey- 
ing the law is part of the price that he gladly pays for 
living in a free and happy land. 

All the precious liberties which we have studied de- 
mand self-control and respect for other people's rights 
on the part of each of us. Religious liberty, for in- 



THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN 29 

stance. It can amount to nothing unless every one 
respects his neighbor's right to worship as he wills. Lib- 
erties mean equal duties, as we have seen. It is the 
old idea of fair play again. We can have our chance 
only because others let us have it; and, turn about, 
we must respect their chance when it comes. 

There is a special and added reason for obeying the 
law in a democracy which every boy and girl should 
understand. It is our laws that we are obeying, laws 
that we made through our legislators whom we choose 
with our votes. So, too, it is our property that we de- 
stroy when we injure a park tree or destroy a public 
sign. A park is a piece of property that we all own 
together. Every child owns a share in it. Therefore 
every child with sense respects it and treats it with 
care, so that it will be preserved for his use and enjoy- 
ment. To destroy a park tree is just about as sensible 
as to throw your baseball into the river. 



CHAPTER VIII 
HOME RULE 

Two Uniforms.— There are two government officers 
that every boy and girl sees daily on the street. They 
both wear uniforms. They both render important and 
familiar services to us all. I mean the policeman and 
the postman. 

At first sight you might think there was no especial 
difference between these two public servants, except the 
particular work they did. But there is one other dif- 
ference that is most important and packed with mean- 
ing. If you understand this difference and the reason 
for it you will understand a very large part of American 
government. You will gain an idea that goes to the 
roots of our whole system. 

You can discover this important fact for yourself. 
Look at a postage-stamp and you will find on it the 
words "U. S. Postage." Look on the policeman's 
shield and you will find the name of your city, New 
York, Chicago, San Francisco, or your village, however 
small. The name of the locality is there— but no 

"U. S." 

The Two Kinds of Work.— This is not mere chance. 
It has a far-reaching cause. Can you work it out for 
yourself? Why should the postman be as he is an 
officer of the United States, of the national government 
at Washington, and the policeman an officer of your 

30 



HOME RULE 31 

local government? Is not the reason fairly clear when 
you come to think of it? The policeman's job is wholly 
local. He has his beat, which may change, but his 
work never takes him out of the locality. It is local 
peace, local order, that he is to preserve. So he is 
hired and paid by the local government, the village or 
city where you live. The postman, on the other hand, 
is part of a vast system that covers the whole country. 
Your particular postman's job is local enough, to deliver 
letters on a given street or route. But the letters he 
delivers come from all over the United States, all over 
the world. He is one small cog in a great machine 
which has to be unified and under one central control 
to work well. Naturally he is hired and paid by the 
national government, the Post-Office Department, at 
Washington. 

The Principle of Home Rule. — Now, the great, gen- 
eral rule of America is to let each community do just as 
much governing as it safely can. The principle of 
home rule this is often called, and the idea of it is deep 
in every American. It goes back to our whole notion 
of personal liberty and the right of each individual to 
run his own concerns. 

In the Family. — Self-control or self-government is the 
beginning of home rule. Every American boy and girl 
is trusted far more than other children. It is the 
American way to put children on their honor as far as 
possible, to let them learn the value of money by using 
and saving it, to run their games, and generally take 
responsibility early. There are, of course, many things 
in which parents and teachers must give orders and 



32 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

children must obey implicitly. Whenever possible, 
Americans prefer to let their children learn by choosing 
and deciding for themselves. This system, we believe, 
produces self-reliant men and women, rich in individual 
character and common sense and what is called initia- 
tive, the ability to act alone, on one's own ideas, without 
prodding from some one else. Americans are self- 
starters, we like to think. 

Centralized Government.— This principle applies not 
only in the home but all the way up, through each divi- 
sion of the country, in village, town, county, city, and 
State. You can see that the country might still be a 
democracy and be run on quite the reverse principle. 
All the power might be centralized at Washington. 
Your policeman might be hired by the government at 
Washington just as is the postman. That is, in fact, 
very much the way the French Government is run. 

The American Theory.— But it is not the American 
way. Our theory is exactly that of home rule, that 
each community ought to run as much of its local 
affairs as it can run well. By handling their local 
affairs, running their schools, paving their streets, oper- 
ating their own fire departments, Americans learn 
about public affairs and become self-reliant citizens, 
able to vote more wisely on the great national ques- 
tions that arise. You can see that this is the self- 
government theory over again, that America tries to 
develop self-reliance in its communities exactly as it 
does in its boys and girls. 

The Forty-Eight States.— The States are the essential 
framework of home rule in our government. They are 



HOME RULE 33 

something far more than mere areas of square miles, 
physical divisions into which the nation is carved. 
They are living parts of our national being, as complete 
in themselves and as necessary and vital to the life of 
the nation as the nine individual players are necessary 
to a ball team. That is why they are all symbolized 
separately in the flag, each by a star and the thirteen 
original States by a stripe as well. 

Without the States, each leading a life of its own, it 
is doubtful if our nation could endure. It was the pre- 
diction of European observers that no nation as vast 
as ours could long exist as a republic. That it has done 
so and has prospered and stands to-day securer than 
ever is due first of all to this basic American idea of a 
union of States, all endowed with full power of home 
rule. 

Chance had everything to do with the creation of 
this unit at the start. As you know, there were thir- 
teen colonies at the time of the Revolution and these 
thirteen colonies became the thirteen original States. 
Our forefathers united these separate governments into 
one government, which they called the United States of 
America. The name recorded exactly what happened. 
" Federal" is another word often used to describe this 
fact in our government, that it was formed of several 
governments united in one government. The word 
means just that. The Latin motto "E pluribus unum," 
which is on our coins, meaning "One from many," ex- 
presses the same idea. 

There was no effort to destroy any part of the State 
governments. These going concerns were accepted of 



34 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

necessity. The problem that faced the wise, far-seeing, 
and patient men who met in the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1787 was how to give full home rule to each of 
these separate States, and yet so firmly unite them in a 
single nation that no quarrel from without or within 
could ever break them apart. How marvellously suc- 
cessful they were, time has proved. William Ewart 
Gladstone, the great Englishman, declared that the 
American Constitution was "the most wonderful work 
ever struck off at a given time by the brain and pur- 
pose of man." That is the general opinion of man- 
kind. 

The National Government.— You see, then, the general 
scheme of our government. You can easily work out 
some of the details yourself. The mails were put in 
charge of the Federal Government (that is the govern- 
ment at Washington) for the obvious reason; suggested 
before. Mails had to travel between States and, of 
course, no one State could handle them efficiently. All 
commerce between States (interstate commerce, it is 
called, which is Latin for between-state) was placed un- 
der national control. The coining of money, which has 
to circulate in every State, was placed under federal con- 
trol. The power to declare war and control of the army 
and navy were also given to the national government. 
Otherwise, as you can see, the separate States might 
have quarrelled as they pleased and there would have 
been no real nation at all. Also the national govern- 
ment received the important power to raise money by 
taxation to pay its expenses. (You will remember 
from your American history that after the Revolu- 



HOME RULE 35 

tion, from 1783 to 1788, when the Constitution was 
adopted, the country nearly fell to pieces under the 
Articles of Confederation which gave the central govern- 
ment no power to raise money and otherwise tied its 
hands.) 

Later on the other powers of the national government 
will be stated in full. The point for you to see now is 
their general aim and character. 

Power of the States. — All the remaining powers of local 
government were left with the State governments, which 
thus received a free hand to run their local concerns very 
much as they wished. Therefore each State in the 
Union is a government by itself, with very great powers 
within its own area. (The police power is one of these 
powers, and that is how, as we discovered before, your 
policeman never happens to have "U. S." on his 
shield, but always the name of the locality.) This 
is home rule on a gigantic scale. California can build 
its roads and run its schools and pass laws about 
marriage and divorce and what-not to suit its situa- 
tion and people. So can Louisiana. So can Minnesota. 
So can Maine. Think how vast a country America is, 
how many different kinds of people there are in it, and 
how different the States are in climate, resources, and 
occupations, and you will see how useful and necessary 
it is that this sweeping home rule exists. It is safe to 
say that without this home rule by States America 
never would have hung together and become the great 
nation that it is. 

Home Rule Within States. — What did the States do 
with all these powers ? Well, part of their freedom was 



36 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

to run their governments as they chose (within certain 
limits), and, therefore, no two State governments are 
exactly alike. The names of divisions vary, the names 
of officers vary, the whole systems vary. We shall go 
into these divisions within the States in detail later. It 
is enough to say now that the same principle of home 
rule is respected and carried out in every State. The 
powers that a State possesses, it passes on to its counties, 
its cities, its towns, and its villages. 

To go back to your policeman, a State could, if it 
chose, hire all the policemen throughout its cities and 
villages, appointing them by its central government at 
its State capital. But no State does. Every State 
turns over this police power to the local government of 
city, county, village, or town. 

So we end where we began, with home rule as the 
life-saving provision of American government, a living 
part of the structure of the original government through 
the preservation of the existing States, and an honored 
principle of government from one end of the country 
to the other. 

Good and Bad Government. — Under this system each 
community gets just as good or just as bad a govern- 
ment as it deserves. If the voters of a village are in- 
telligent and interested in their local government, if 
they watch it carefully and do their share of work, that 
village will be excellently governed. If the voters are 
illiterate and stupid and too lazy to vote or pay atten- 
tion to public affairs, their village will be poorly gov- 
erned. 

What is true of a village is true of a city or a State. 



HOME RULE 37 

And it is not less true of the whole nation. Democracy 
is not a short cut to good government. It is no cure- 
all. It simply enables a people fit for self-government 
to rule themselves as they deserve. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE PRESIDENT 

1. Teem and Powers 

Open to All. — The presidency of the United States is 
the greatest office in the world, for which neither birth 
nor riches are required. Any American boy, however 
poor and whoever his parents may be, famous or un- 
known, can hope to become President. The only im- 
portant restriction is that the President must have been 
born an American. (A naturalized citizen cannot be 
President.) It is also required that he be not less than 
thirty-five years old and have resided not less than four- 
teen years in the country. (Constitution, Art. II, Sec. 1, 
Par. 4.) 1 

The Executive Branch. — As we saw before, the Pres- 
ident corresponds to the captain of a team. He leads 
the nation, and he sees that the laws are carried out — 
"executes" the laws, in the language of the Constitu- 
tion, which means the same thing. From this he is 
usually described as the "executive branch" of our 
government, just as Congress, our lawmaking body, is 
called the "legislative," and the courts, our umpires^ 
are called the "judicial." His first and highest duty is 

1 The full text of the Constitution of the United States will be found at 
pages 173 to 189. All references in parenthesis are to the Constitution, 
by Article, Section, and Paragraph. 

38 



THE PRESIDENT 39 

to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." 
(Art. II, Sec. 3.) 

Term and Powers. — The President is one of the most 
powerful rulers in the world. But two important facts 
must be kept in mind. 

First, he is elected for a term of four years (Art. II, 
Sec. 1), and at the end of that time, unless the people 
wish him to continue in office, he loses all power and 
becomes a plain citizen like every one else. The Presi- 
dent is often re-elected for a second term of four years, 
and there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent his 
election for more terms. But George Washington 
refused a third term on the ground that it might tend 
to make him seem a king, and his example has always 
been respected and followed. No President has had 
more than two terms or eight years. 

Second, his powers are not anything he chooses, but, 
as you will see, only the definite things set down in 
black and white in the Constitution as his to do. These 
are the safeguards that prevent a President from be- 
coming a tyrant or setting up anything like a monarchy. 

Commander-in-Chief. — "The President shall be com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United 
States," says the Constitution. (Art. II, Sec. 2.) This 
means that he ranks above all our generals and admirals, 
and that every battleship and every sailor and every 
soldier are his to command. You may have read during 
the Great War that it was finally won by the Allies 
largely because all the Allied armies were placed under 
Marshal Foch, thus achieving "unity of command," as 
it was called. Our fighting forces are run on.this same 



40 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

principle, that one man, the President, must have com- 
plete control. He chooses the generals, the admirals, 
and directs the entire movements of our armies and 
fleets. You can see that this, alone, gives the President 
of the United States a vast power. 

He Cannot Declare War.— Yet right here you can un- 
derstand how carefully the President's powers, great 
as they are, have been limited so as to safeguard 
the people's rights. The President makes war for us 
through our armies and navies, but he cannot start a 
war. The power to declare war is reserved to Con- 
gress, composed of the House and Senate, our national 
legislature. Moreover, the President has no power to 
raise money to build ships or buy guns or anything else 
for army or navy. Congress has the sole right to raise 
money by taxation and give it to the President for these 
purposes. So you see that while the President com- 
mands our army and navy, he cannot say whom they 

shall fight or when. 

Division of Powers.-— This division of powers between 
President and Congress (and the courts, as you will see 
later) is one of the basic ideas of our government. The 
object is to prevent any one branch of the government 
from taking too much power and becoming tyrannical. 
You can observe this same purpose in much that follows. 
You will notice, for instance, that all important appoint- 
ments made by the President must be approved by the 
Senate. This is a sweeping restriction on the entire 
executive power. Yet since the power of removal is 
given wholly to the President, his control over his sub- 
ordinates is complete. 




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THE PRESIDENT 41 

2. The Cabinet 

The Cabinet. — The President could not possibly do 
all his duties himself and Congress has authorized him 
to appoint ten secretaries in charge of as many depart- 
ments. These are his official advisers and assistants, 
and are known as his Cabinet though not so named in any 
law. They hold meetings, presided over by the Presi- 
dent, at frequent intervals. What goes on in these meet- 
ings is confidential, and no record of them is published. 
Each of these secretaries receives a salary of $12,000. 

The ten members of the Cabinet are: 

Secretary of State, 1789. 

Secretary of the Treasury, 1789. 

Secretary of War, 1789. 

Attorney-General, 1789. 

Postmaster-General, 1794. 

Secretary of the Navy, 1798. 

Secretary of the Interior, 1849. 

Secretary of Agriculture, 1889. 

Secretary of Commerce, 1903. 1 

Secretary of Labor, 1903. 1 
These are set down in the order of their creation by 
Congress, with the years of their beginning. They 
show how the business of the government has grown 
with the country. Congress defines the powers of each 
secretary; but the President appoints them and can 
remove them at will. 

Secretary of State. — The President has general charge 
of the foreign affairs of the nation. That is to say, he 

1 These two offices were united until 1913. 



42 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

negotiates treaties (agreements with other countries), 
sends out ambassadors and consuls to represent the 
United States in foreign countries, issues passports (trav- 
elling papers) to our citizens who wish to go abroad, 
and protects our citizens and ships wherever they may 
be. The Secretary of State runs these affairs for him. 

But here again is a notable case of limiting the Presi- 
dent's power; for all treaties must be approved by a 
two-thirds vote of the Senate before they are binding, 
and the appointment of all ambassadors, etc., must be 
approved by a majority vote of the Senate. The makers 
of our Constitution felt that a treaty, being an agree- 
ment with another nation which might bring us into 
grave difficulties, perhaps even war, should take effect 
only when thus carefully considered and accepted by 
another branch of the government. (Art. II, Sec. 2, 
Par. 2.) 

The Secretary of State is regarded as one of the 
highest and most important officers in the country. In 
many respects he ranks next to the President in honor. 
Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State under Presi- 
dent Washington, and James Madison under President 
Jefferson. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — As the head of the Trea- 
sury Department, he handles all the money affairs of 
the national government. He collects the tariff (the 
tax on goods entering the United States from other 
countries) and all other federal taxes. He pays out 
money for all the expenses of the government. He 
raises money by loans (such as the Liberty Loans dur- 
ing the Great War). He coins our money, through a 



THE PRESIDENT 43 

subordinate known as the director of the mint; he has 
general direction of the national banks and the Federal 
Reserve banks. 

In all these matters the President, and the secretary 
under him, can only carry out or execute the laws which 
Congress passes. That is to say, they can collect only 
the taxes that Congress orders and pay out only the 
money that Congress directs. The President, for ex- 
ample, can build a post-office only if Congress orders 
it and grants the money for it. 

The Treasury Department also has charge of several 
other interesting matters: the Revenue Cutter Service 
(to prevent smuggling, that is the bringing of foreign 
goods into the United States without the payment of 
the tariff due) ; the Secret Service to arrest counterfeiters 
and other violators of national laws; and the Life Sav- 
ing Service of our coast guards who, in case a ship is 
wrecked, seek to save the passengers and crew from 
drowning. 

Secretary of War. — He has charge of the army and 
carries out the orders of the President as its commander- 
in-chief. 

Army engineers do important peace work. They 
built the Panama Canal and have general charge of the 
improvement of our harbors and rivers. 

The United States Military Academy at West Point, 
New York, is in charge of the War Department. It 
gives a free education for a four years' course, and 
graduates are commissioned as second lieutenants in 
the regular army. Each congressional district sends 
one cadet, who is named by the representative of the 



44 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

district, usually after a competitive examination. Sen- 
ators and the President also make a limited number of 
appointments. 

Attorney-General. — This officer has charge of the De- 
partment of Justice and gives legal advice to all the 
departments of the government and acts as their law- 
yer in court. 

Postmaster-General. — This member of the Cabinet has 
charge of the Post-Office Department. Its services will 
be described in Chapter XIII. 

Secretary of the Navy. — He is in charge of the navy 
and carries out the orders of the President as its com- 
mander-in-chief. 

The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
Maryland, is in charge of the Navy Department. It 
gives a free education lasting four years at the academy 
and two years at sea. Appointments are made as at 
West Point. 

Secretary of the Interior. — This important secretary 
has charge of a number of miscellaneous internal af- 
fairs of the nation: the pensions for soldiers and sailors; 
the survey and gift or sale of the public lands; the 
national parks; the reclamation of arid lands by irriga- 
tion; the Indians; and patents (giving inventors of use- 
ful devices the exclusive right to profit from their dis- 
covery for a period of years). The department also 
includes a commissioner of education, whose work is 
simply that of investigation and advice, since the school 
system of the country is a local affair entirely. 

Secretary of Agriculture.— His department maintains 
stations, at which it experiments with seeds and 




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THE PRESIDENT 45 

animals and spreads the knowledge thus gained among 
farmers. It also includes the Forest Service, the 
Weather Bureau, and two important bureaus that in- 
spect foods and drugs to make sure that they are pure 
and wholesome. 

Secretary of Commerce. — He has general supervision 
of all navigation, including the care of lighthouses and 
buoys, the inspection of steamboats, to see that they 
are safe, and the coast survey that prepares charts for 
sailors. His department restocks lakes, rivers, and the 
sea with fish. It takes the census every ten years, now 
a colossal work, since the country has grown from 
3,900,000 in 1790 to 101,100,000 in 1910. 

Secretary of Labor. — He has general supervision of im- 
migration and naturalization, the entrance of foreigners 
into the United States and their admission to citizenship. 

This department also includes a Bureau of Labor, 
that investigates the conditions of labor, and a Chil- 
dren's Bureau, that investigates child labor and other 
questions affecting the happiness and health of boys 
and girls. As we shall see, the regulation of labor con- 
ditions is primarily a State affair under the Constitution, 
and the powers of this national office are limited chiefly 
to advice. 

Interstate Commerce Commission. — In addition to these 
ten departments, headed by the ten members of the 
Cabinet, the national government includes a number of 
other important bodies, chief of which is the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission, created by Congress in 
1887 to regulate railroad rates and make them fair and 
reasonable. It is appointed by the President. 



46 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

Library of Congress. — This great library is housed in a 
magnificent building near the Capitol in Washington. 
It is in charge of a librarian appointed by the President. 
He has charge of copyrights, which give to writers of 
books, plays, songs, etc., the same exclusive right to 
profit from their work that patents give to inventors. 

Territorial Governments. — The President has large pow- 
ers in the government of all United States territory 
not included in any State. He appoints three com- 
missioners to govern the District of Columbia, and a 
governor and various other officers for Alaska, for Ha- 
waii, for Porto Rico, and for the Philippines. Residents 
of the District of Columbia have no vote whatever in 
their government. In Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and 
the Philippines the people share in the government 
through a legislature which they elect. Both Alaska 
and Hawaii also elect a territorial delegate who sits in 
the House of Representatives at Washington. He can 
speak on all questions concerning his territory but has 
no vote. Porto Rico elects one commissioner and the 
Philippines elect two commissioners who represent 
them at Washington, but have no seat in Congress. 
The Panama Canal Zone is in charge of a governor ap- 
pointed by the Secretary of War; Guam and Samoa are 
governed by the naval officer in command there. 

As we shall see, Congress has power under the Con- 
stitution to provide whatever government it thinks 
best for these territories and island possessions. It has 
passed laws setting up the various governments described 
above and placing in the President the power to make 
these important appointments. 



THE PRESIDENT 47 

Civil Service.— This is a phrase that is often used 
and you should understand what it means. "Civil' 
has many meanings. Here it means nothing more 
than " not-military. " That is, the "civil service" of 
the government includes all office-holders not in the 
army or the navy. Now there are some 400,000 of 
these, and their number increases steadily year by 
year. Almost all of them are chosen by the President, 
and you can see what a task it would be if each new 
President appointed a new man for each job. That 
was the system for many years — the "spoils system," 
it was called, and it was based on the idea that "to the 
victor belong the spoils." As a party came into power 
its President threw out all the office-holders not of his 
party, and rewarded his political friends with jobs. 

In 1883, however, a civil-service law was passed 
which ended much of this. It has been extended year 
by year. This law provides that public offices must 
be rilled on the basis of merit after examinations, just 
like school examinations; and when once chosen, an 
officer holds his job during good behavior. He cannot 
be thrown out to make room for a politician. 

The President has still a large number of appoint- 
ments to fill, however, and this forms a large part of 
his duty. The most important appointments must be 
confirmed by the Senate, including the ten members of 
his Cabinet: the federal judges (including the justices 
of the Supreme Court); postmasters in the cities and 
larger towns; collectors of customs at the ports; federal 
district attorneys (who prosecute criminals); ambassa- 
dors, and consuls. (Art. II, Sec. 2, Par. 2.) 



48 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

3. Legislative Powers 

President and Congress. — All this, so far, you will ob- 
serve, is executive power. Congress passes a law un- 
der one of its constitutional powers, and the President 
carries it into action. We come now to an important 
part that the President plays in the making of laws. 

The Veto.— The word "veto" is Latin for "I forbid." 
Under our Constitution, when Congress has passed a 
bill, it must go before the President before it takes 
effect. He can sign it, in which case it becomes a law 
at once. If he does nothing, it becomes a law after ten 
days, provided Congress is still sitting. If Congress ad- 
journs within ten days, the President need do nothing. 
The bill fails unless he signs it. This is called the "pocket- 
veto." Or he can "veto" the bill, sending it back to 
Congress with any reasons he cares to give. This kills 
the bill. 

Congress can take it up again if it wishes, but cannot 
pass it over the President's veto, except by a two-thirds 
vote of both Houses. As this vote is difficult to get, 
the President's veto is a very powerful obstacle to Con- 
gress. It compels Congress to pay attention to the 
President's views if it wishes its bills to become laws, 
and gives the President a very decided influence on all 
legislation. A strong and courageous President has 
more influence than a weak one. But the power is 
very real and important in any President's hands. 

Here, you will notice, the Constitution places a very 
important check upon Congress and its whole legisla- 
tive power. (Art. I, Sec. 7, Pars. 2 and 3.) 



THE PRESIDENT 49 

Messages to Congress. — The Constitution provides that 
the President shall "from time to time give to the Con- 
gress information of the state of the Union, and rec- 
ommend to their consideration such measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient." (Art. II, Sec. 3.) 
George Washington delivered his messages to Congress 
orally. Jefferson, not caring for public speaking, sent 
his messages in writing, and that continued to be the 
custom down to President Wilson who resumed the for- 
gotten practice of addressing Congress in person. The 
President usually sends an annual message and as many 
shorter messages as he deems proper. This right is not 
nearly as effective as the power of the British Premier, 
who sits in the British House of Commons and leads 
its debates, but it adds considerably to the President's 
influence upon legislation. 

Special Sessions of Congress. — The President can call 
Congress in special session to consider any subject that 
he considers important whenever he wishes. This gives 
him an added influence upon Congress, for he can 
keep Congress sitting as long as he wishes. (Art. II, 
Sec. 3.) 

These three powers, to veto bills, to send messages 
to Congress, and to call special sessions of Congress are 
the only legislative powers of the President. 

4. Judicial Power 

Pardoning Power. — The President has another power, 
really judicial. He can pardon any criminal convicted 
under a federal law — that is, for example, mail thieves, 
counterfeiters, or smugglers. There are no constitu- 



50 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

tional limits on this power, but no President uses it 
except to free a man who has been wrongly or too 
harshly punished; to correct the errors of courts, in 
other words. (Art. II, Sec. 2, Par. 1.) 

5. Election 

Election of President. — This is one of the few provi- 
sions of the Constitution which have not worked out 
as the makers of the Constitution hoped. They planned 
an electoral college of wise men chosen by the people, 
and gave the election of a President and Vice-President 
to this body. They did not trust the people to pick a 
good President directly. This body still exists, and 
when you vote for President you nominally vote only 
for "presidential electors." But these men are selected 
by the parties who have already named their candidates 
for President and Vice-President and the electors always 
vote as their parties wish. So your vote really counts 
for the candidate and the electoral college might just 
as well not exist. The Constitution still provides for the 
electoral college, but the people vote directly for their 
President none the less. The original provision (Art. 
II, Sec. 1, Par. 2) was changed in 1804 by the Twelfth 
Amendment, but not so as to eliminate the electoral 
college. The vote for President was merely separated 
from the vote for Vice-President. 

Minority Presidents. — The only effect of preserving this 
peculiar provision is to make possible sometimes the 
election of a "minority President" — that is, a Presi- 
dent who did not receive a majority of all the votes in 
the country. This is because the electors are chosen 



THE PRESIDENT 51 

by States. Each State has as many votes in the elec- 
toral college as it has representatives and senators in 
Congress. Now if one candidate carries a few States 
by very large majorities, and his opponent carries many 
States by very small majorities, the latter may easily 
win a majority in the electoral college, and yet not 
have half of all the votes cast. Lincoln was a minority 
President in 1860. So have been eight other Presi- 
dents. This seems queer and unjust, but it is our his- 
toric method, and it has never been considered worth 
while to change it. 

Election by the House. — The electors of each State meet 
at the State capitol on the second Monday in January 
following the election and vote. Their ballot is sent 
to the president of the United States Senate and on the 
second Wednesday in February the president of the 
Senate, before a joint session of Congress, opens the bal- 
lots and they are counted. 

A majority of the electoral vote is required, and 
therefore if there is a tie or the votes are split among 
a number of candidates the election fails. In this event 
the election is thrown into the House of Representatives, 
which chooses a President from among the three can- 
didates standing highest in the vote of the electoral 
college. In this balloting each State has one vote. 
The Senate elects a Vice-President under similar con- 
ditions. Twice the election has been thus thrown into 
the House, in 1800, when Jefferson and Burr were tied, 
and in 1824, when the electoral votes were divided 
among four candidates and John Quincy Adams was 
elected by the House. 



52 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

Inauguration Day.— The President is elected early in 
November (the Tuesday following the first Monday), 
every four years, 1916, 1920, etc. But he does not take 
office until the March 4 following (in 1917, 1921, etc.), 
that date being known as Inauguration Day. He then 
takes the oath of office set forth in the Constitution 
(Art. II, Sec. 1, Par. 7) : "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 
that I will faithfully execute the office of President of 
the United States, and will to the best of my ability 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States." The oath is administered by the Chief 
Justice of the United States. This ceremony is pre- 
ceded by a great parade and followed by a speech from 
the new President outlining his policies, delivered from 
the Capitol steps before a vast crowd. He is then 
driven to his new home, the White House. The Presi- 
dent receives a salary of $75,000. 

The Presidents Death. — If the President dies or be- 
comes disabled the Vice-President, elected at the same 
time with him, becomes President. Until that time 
the Vice-President has nothing to do except to preside 
over the Senate. His salary is $12,000. If the Vice- 
President dies before the President, the succession then 
goes down through the Cabinet in the following order: 
Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary 
of War, the Attorney-General, the Postmaster-General, 
the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior. 
(Art. II, Sec. 1, Par. 5.) 



CHAPTER X 
CONGRESS 

1. The Two Houses 

The Legislative Branch. — The rules of baseball, as we 
saw, are made by a national commission representing 
the big leagues. Most of the rules are very old, and 
were followed by boys playing the game long before 
they were written down. But changes are made almost 
every year to meet new conditions or clear up doubts, 
and that is why a rule-making body is always needed. 
The laws of the United States are much the same. 
Many of them are very old and were customs, habits 
of right and fair-dealing among men, before they were 
written down into laws. But the country grows so 
rapidly, conditions of life change so constantly, that new 
laws are needed every year. Therefore, the Constitu- 
tion creates our Congress that sits every year in Wash- 
ington, debates our national problems and makes our 
laws (subject, as we have seen, to the Presidents right 
of veto). It is called the legislative branch of our gov- 
ernment. (Art. I, Sec. 1.) 

Two Houses of Congress. — Congress is composed of two 
bodies, the House of Representatives (usually called the 
"House") and the Senate. One meets in one end of 
the Capitol at Washington, the other in the other. A 
bill must be passed by both House and Senate before 

63 



54 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

it can become a law. The two bodies are unlike in 
every important respect save that both are elected by 
the people. 

The House of Representatives now (1919) contains 
435 members, allotted to the States according to popula- 
tion. Thus the large States have many representatives, 
the small ones few. New York has 43 representatives, 
Delaware 1. Originally each State was allowed 1 repre- 
sentative for every 33,000 inhabitants, and this gave 
the first House 65 members. If this ratio had remained 
unchanged the House would now consist of over 3,000 
members, which would make a body far too large for 
effective deliberation. Congress has therefore increased 
the ratio from time to time. A representative is now 
allotted to every 210,000 inhabitants (about). But 
each State, however small, is entitled to 1 representa- 
tive. (Nevada, for instance, has a representative, 
though its population is only 81,000, less than half of 
the quota.) Congress fixes the ratio of representation 
after each decennial census. (Art. I, Sec. 2.) 

The Senate has 96 members, 2 from each State. 
Large and small States are thus represented alike. Illi- 
nois, with 5,600,000 inhabitants, has two senators, and 
so has Wyoming, with 145,000. It has increased in 
size only as new States have been admitted to the 
Union. (Art. I, Sec. 3.) 

There are several other important differences between 
House and Senate. A senator must be at least thirty 
years old; a representative need be only twenty-five. A 
senator is elected for a term of six years, a representa- 
tive for only two years. Besides, all the representatives 



CONGRESS 55 

are elected at the same time and thus go out of office at 
the same time, whereas in the Senate the terms are so 
arranged that only one-third are elected at any one 
election, two-thirds always holding over. 

Why Two Houses. — Can you see any reasons for hav- 
ing two legislative bodies so unlike one another? The 
explanation of one great difference is historical. As we 
saw before, when the Federal Government was formed 
in 1789, the original States came in with all their exist- 
ing governments. They varied much in size, and local 
pride was very strong. The smaller States would not 
have come into the Union if the Senate had not been 
planned so as to give them equal power and prestige, 
and thus prevent the larger States from taking full con- 
trol. The theory was that the Senate represented the 
States as governments. That is the first reason why 
large and small States have the same vote and power 
in the Senate. 

But there are other and better reasons for having two 
houses and having the membership of one older in years 
and less frequently changed. The preparing and passing 
of good laws is a slow and difficult business requiring 
much thought and care. People are constantly having 
new ideas that sound well but that do not work out. 
If we had one legislative body, and that the House, new 
and untried and ill-considered laws might be passed. 
With the Senate we are surer of thorough debate and 
investigation and careful decisions. They represent dif- 
ferent points of view. Each is a check on the other. 
By the time both have agreed on a law, we can be fairly 
confident that it is a wise and just one. 



56 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

Direct Election of Senators. — The Constitution origi- 
nally had one additional device for making the Senate 
less likely to act hastily. It provided that whereas 
representatives should be elected directly by the people, 
the senators should be chosen by the State Legislatures. 
The thought was that thus more conservative and 
thoughtful men would be chosen. Also, this system 
accorded with the theory of the Senate as the repre- 
sentative of the States as governments. This did not 
meet the {approval of Americans, and in 1913, by the 
Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, this was 
changed, and to-day our senators are elected as are the 
representatives, by popular vote. 

Election of Representatives. — Congress has provided that 
representatives must be elected by districts and not by 
the whole State ("at large," as this latter method is 
termed). Of course, in small States, Arizona, Dela- 
ware, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming, entitled to 
only one representative, he is elected by the voters of 
the whole State. 

The States lay out these congressional districts as 
they wish, and much unfairness has been worked at 
times in the effort by a party in power to apportion the 
State to its advantage. The trick has been either to 
throw the greatest possible number of hostile voters 
into one district, certain to be hostile anyway, or to 
add a friendly area to an evenly divided district. Con- 
gressional districts have taken on extraordinary shapes 
as a result, a " shoe-string" district in Mississippi and 
a "dumbbell" district in Pennsylvania, for instance. 
The device is called "gerrymandering," after Elbridge 



CONGRESS 57 

Gerry, of Massachusetts. He had helped redistribute 
the districts of his State so as to produce one district 
resembling a queer animal figure. "A salamander," it 
was suggested. "Better a Gerrymander " some one re- 
plied, from which the name passed into political slang. 

A representative is not required by law to live in the 
district that elects him. But custom demands it. It 
has been argued that abler men might be sent, if this 
restriction were not imposed, even though the local in- 
terests of the district might not be so closely regarded. 
The English custom, by contrast, frequently elects 
great national figures from districts where they do not 
live. 

The salary of representatives and senators is the 
same, $7,500 a year, with mileage to and from Wash- 
ington. 

2. Powers 

The Powers of Congress. — Congress, like the President, 
is not free to do anything it wishes. It can do only 
what the Constitution expressly permits it to do. Its 
powers are mainly set forth in Section 8 of Article I 
of the Constitution. They are, as we saw before, the 
powers which the nation needs to preserve itself, and 
which the nation can exercise better than the States. 
All the other matters, affecting local concerns, are left 
to the States to handle as they think best. The chief 
matters thus given to Congress to legislate about are 
as follows: 

1. To collect taxes. 

2. To borrow money. 



58 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

3. To regulate commerce to and from foreign coun- 
tries and between the States. 

4. To coin money and punish counterfeiters. 

5. To establish post-offices and post-roads. 

6. To provide for patents and copyrights. 

7. To punish piracy and other crimes committed on 
the high seas. 

8. To declare war. 

9. To maintain an army and navy. 

10. To govern the Territories (Art. IV, Sec. 3) and 
the District of Columbia. 

11. To admit new States. (Art. IV, Sec. 3.) 

12. To make all the laws needed to carry into effect 
these powers. 

As you see, under the last clause Congress has a very 
liberal grant of power with respect to the things it is 
permitted to take charge of. Congress has a free hand 
in the jobs assigned to it. This has often been called 
"the elastic clause," because it has been stretched in 
some cases to cover a good deal. Those who believe 
that the national government should not increase in 
power, construe it very strictly. Those who would 
strengthen the national government construe it liber- 
ally. This is an old and perennial dispute between 
American political parties. 

By referring to the tenth clause above you can work 
out a neat illustration of what Congress can and 
cannot do. The Territories (Alaska, etc.) and the Dis- 
trict of Columbia are considered wards of the national 
government, and have no right to govern themselves 
as the States have. Congress can give them whatever 



CONGRESS 59 

laws it wishes to, local laws as well as the national laws 
described in the other eleven powers. It can provide 
local policemen for Alaska and decide how the streets 
of Washington (in the District of Columbia) shall be 
paved. 

It can do none of these local things in New York or 
Illinois or California or any of the States. In them it 
can only run the mails, draft soldiers, and do the other 
national things enumerated. All the other things are 
left to the States to do as they will. 

As you will have noticed, these powers granted to 
Congress cover, in very general terms, the things that 
the President through his Cabinet carries into action. 
The people adopted the Constitution; by it they gave 
Congress the power to make laws about certain things; 
the President sees that such laws as are passed are 
carried out. 

Congress and the Bill of Rights. — As was stated in 
Chapter VI, Congress, with all its power, cannot pass 
any law interfering with the liberties of American citi- 
zens. Personal safety and freedom, religious freedom, 
free speech, property, trial by jury, are all protected by 
what is often called the Bill of Rights in the Constitu- 
tion — the first ten amendments passed shortly after the 
original Constitution was adopted. Just how Congress 
is restrained will be explained in the next chapter on 
the courts. 

Section 9 of Article I also ties the hands of Congress 
in certain similar respects, as, for instance, in prohibiting 
any title of nobility. Congress could not create a 
prince or duke or earl if it wanted to. 



60 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

Special Powers of the House and Senate. — As we saw be- 
fore, the Senate has certain powers all its own. It can 
approve or reject treaties which the President makes 
with foreign countries (a two-thirds vote being necessary 
for approval). It can confirm or reject the President's 
appointments to certain high offices, judges, ambas- 
sadors, etc., as noted in the preceding chapter. From 
this power has grown a custom known as "senatorial 
courtesy" whereby a President is expected to consult 
the senator of his own party in a State, if there is one, 
before making an appointment therein. Thus the 
senators have gained a large control over federal "pat- 
ronage," as this selection of office-holders is called. 

The only peculiar power of the House is that all the 
tax bills must start in it — this because taxes hit all the 
people and the House is better able to speak for all the 
people at any given time than the Senate. Once intro- 
duced in the House, tax bills must go to the Senate and 
be passed by the Senate like any other bills. (Art. I, 
Sec. 7, Par. 1.) 

When a President or any federal officer violates the 
law or the Constitution, Congress can remove him by 
a trial known as "impeachment." In this the House 
accuses him and states the charges, and the Senate tries 
him, sitting as a court. But one President has ever 
been thus tried, Andrew Johnson, and he was not con- 
victed. (Art. I, Sec. 2, Par. 5, and Sec. 3, Pars. 6 and 7.) 

3. Organization 

How Congress Works.— The House elects a speaker who 
presides over its sessions. His position is one of great 



CONGRESS 61 

importance and influence. Any representative can pro- 
pose any bill, that is to say, the draft of a law, that 
he wishes to. It is referred to a committee which can 
either kill it or, if it approves, report it back to the 
House for action. The House is divided into a large 
number of these committees, each with certain subjects 
assigned to it, and, as you can see, very important and 
decisive action takes place in these committees. One 
of the most important is the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, which passes upon all tax bills for the raising of 
revenue. The most powerful is the Committee on 
Rules, which largely determines what bills shall be 
considered. The bill, if reported back by the committee, 
must be read three times on three different days — this 
to make sure that no bill is slipped through unawares — 
and is then voted upon. If it receives a majority of 
votes it is sent to the Senate, which takes it up in just 
the same way, referring it to a committee, and so on. 
If the Senate passes the bill it goes to the President for 
him to approve or veto. If the Senate does not pass it, 
the bill fails. Often the Senate amends, that is to say, 
changes the bill as it comes from the House, and the 
matter then goes to a conference committee of repre- 
sentatives and senators, who try to adjust the differences 
and agree upon a compromise bill which can pass both 
House and Senate. 

The Vice-President presides over the Senate, but he 
has no vote except when there is a tie. Bills are intro- 
duced in the Senate, referred to committees, and so on, 
exactly as in the House. The only restriction is that 
noted before, that tax bills cannot be introduced in the 



62 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

Senate. Owing to its smaller size the Senate is a much 
more effective forum for debate than the House. When 
the Senate is considering treaties or presidential appoint- 
ments it is said to be in "executive session" and its pro- 
ceedings are secret. 

Congress meets every year on the first Monday in 
December. It also meets in special session at other 
times, when the President summons it. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE FEDERAL COURTS 

The Need of National Judges.— The simplest rules of 
baseball need an umpire to apply them, and you can 
see how great is the need of a fair and unbiassed um- 
pire to tell the President, Congress, and the people just 
what the Constitution means on any given subject. 
Disputes would be endless, otherwise. Even more im- 
portant, Congress might claim power not really given 
it; it might pass a law taking away religious liberty or 
free speech or a man's life or property; and if there were 
no umpire to say no, the law would prevail. 

Their Powers. — The federal courts, of which the Su- 
preme Court at Washington is the highest and final 
authority, act as this umpire. Their chief work is to 
interpret the Constitution, decide what it means, and 
if Congress has exceeded its powers to say so. When 
these courts decide that a law is not authorized by the 
Constitution, is unconstitutional, that law is wiped 
out. Similarly, if anybody violates the Constitution, 
a private citizen, or a policeman, or even a State judge 
or a State [ legislature, the federal courts step in and 
direct that the Constitution be obeyed. These courts 
are the bulwark of the Constitution. Without them it 
could not protect our liberties or make our country a 
safe and happy place to live in. \ 

63 



64 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

These courts also settle disputes and punish crimes 
arising under the laws passed by Congress and under 
treaties with foreign nations. There are State courts 
which pass on the State laws enacted by State legisla- 
tures, as we shall see. Most crimes are local in char- 
acter and are tried in the State courts. Thus, if a boy 
smashed a street-lamp he would be breaking a local, 
that is, a State law, and would be tried in a State court. 
But if he stole a letter from a letter-box he would be 
breaking a federal law protecting the mails, which are 
a national concern, and would be tried in a federal 
court. Counterfeiters must similarly be tried in fed- 
eral courts, for it is the federal law which punishes 
counterfeiting. 

The federal courts hear certain other cases as well. 
All disputes between States come before them, also all 
suits between citizens of different States. The idea is 
here that the federal court is better fitted to be impar- 
tial, since it is chosen by the President and not by either 
State. (Art. Ill, Sees. 1 and 2.) 

The Supreme Court. — This is the highest court in the 
land, and in many respects the most wonderful court in 
the world. It has successfully applied the Constitution 
to our changing, vastly growing nation through more 
than a century and a quarter. Membership on it is 
one of the highest honors in the country. The Chief 
Justice ranks as one of our greatest public figures. 

The court consists of the Chief Justice and eight asso- 
ciate justices. They are appointed by the President 
(with the consent of the Senate) and serve for life. 
The court sits in the Capitol at Washington. The 



THE FEDERAL COURTS 65 

salary of the Chief Justice is $15,000, the salary of the 
associate justices, $14,500. 

Most cases come before it on appeal from the lower 
courts. That is to say, the side that loses at the 
first trial "appeals" to this higher court to have the 
decision changed. 

District Courts and Circuit Courts. — The lowest federal 
courts, in which suits usually begin, are called district 
courts. Appeal is first made to the circuit courts of 
appeal and thence to the Supreme Court. There are 
district judges and circuit judges sitting in every State. 
They are all appointed by the President (with the con- 
sent of the Senate). 



CHAPTER XII 
THE THREE BRANCHES OF OUR GOVERNMENT 

Our System of Checks and Balances. — You have now 
seen the three branches of our government — the execu- 
tive, the legislative, and the judicial — and you have 
seen in detail how they check each other. The legisla- 
tive power of Congress is checked by the President's 
veto. The executive power of the President is checked 
by the Senate's right to reject his appointments. The 
judiciary can check Congress all along the line by its 
right to hold it to the Constitution. All this was care- 
fully planned by the makers of our Constitution, with 
definite purposes in view. They called it a system of 
checks and balances. 

Its Purposes. — The purposes were two. One was to 
prevent tyranny by any one branch. The other was to 
prevent hasty action by the nation. If too much power 
lay in any one branch, or if the branches were not sep- 
arate — if the executive and legislative powers were 
united in one body, for instance (as is true in England 
to-day, where the chief executive is the premier chosen 
by the House of Commons) — there would be danger that 
some very strong man or men would usurp power and 
set up a dictatorship. 

The second reason does not appeal to some Americans 
with plans of change and reform. Undoubtedly the 
system has sometimes held back desirable changes too 

66 



THE THREE BRANCHES OF OUR GOVERNMENT 67 

long. It certainly compels delay, debate, and second 
thoughts. It has certainly prevented many blunders. 
If it errs on the side of " safety first," it has worked and 
worked successfully for many years, through all kinds 
of strain and stress. Even if it makes us impatient at 
times, we should realize its value and hesitate a long 
time before changing it. 



CHAPTER XIII 
WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 

1. The Fundamental Services 

In Our Daily Life. — Having viewed the machinery of 
our national government, let us examine in detail what 
services it renders each of us. Most of the things that 
come nearest to our daily life, that make life in a village 
or city pleasant and comfortable, are done by the local 
government, as we shall find later. But the national 
government performs some important services of this 
character, the delivery of mail, for instance; and as we 
know from our study of liberty and fair play, it performs 
other services even more important though not usually 
so plainly to be seen and appreciated. Let us take up 
these latter first. They have been already suggested. 

The Greatest Services of All.— The basis of all our rights 
of liberty, our safety and happiness, our religious free- 
dom, our free speech, is our strong, unified, national 
government. Under weak and unstable governments 
no man's life or property is secure from day to day. 
You have read in our own history how troubled were 
the years just after the Revolution, when the thirteen 
colonies were only loosely held together under the Arti- 
cles of Confederation. It was, in fact, the disorder and 
confusion of these years that made the colonies see the 
need and wisdom of a strong union under the Constitu- 

68 



WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 69 

tion. From 1783 to 1789 the new American confedera- 
tion was threatened from without and from within, and 
the new Constitution gave the nation vast powers to 
end these troubles and safeguard the people's liberties. 
The preamble to the Constitution states this clearly : 

" We the people of the United States, in order to form 
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote 
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish 
this Constitution for the United States of America.' ' 

Enemies Abroad. — In time of peace we are apt to 
forget this elementary service that America does for us. 
Any one who lived through the period of the Great 
War can never make this mistake. When the war 
came, it was our national government at Washington 
that carried the whole burden. Local governments are 
useless in such a crisis, for unity of command is essen- 
tial. To protect us from foreign invasion, to command 
us in our battles, to speak for America among the 
nations of the world, we must look to our national 
government. That is the most vital service of all. 
Upon it depends our whole safety and happiness. For 
if we were a weak, divided nation, without army or 
navy, and with no strong government, we might be 
conquered, deprived of our rights, and ruled as a colony, 
as indeed the imperialistic Germans dreamed of doing. 
China is the best example of such weakness. She has 
been invaded and overrun and conquered time and 
again. 

This danger of war is no remote possibility, though 



70 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

people are apt to forget in time of peace how constant 
the danger is. Our country was founded by a long and 
bloody war, the War of the Revolution. Since then we 
have fought five wars: the War of 1812, the Mexican 
War, the Civil War, the Spanish War, the Great War. 
The Revolution ended in 1781, the Great War in 1918. 
That is a period of one hundred and thirty-seven years, 
and, therefore, the average interval between wars has 
been less than twenty-seven years. The longest period 
between wars was from the Civil War to the Spanish 
War, 1864 to 1898, which is thirty-four years. Every 
generation of Americans has gone to war, and every 
American who has lived to middle age has lived through 

a war. 

In time of peace our foreign trade depends on the 
same force. Because our nation protects its flag wher- 
ever flown and its citizens wherever they travel, other 
nations respect us and our citizens can go where they 
will. If this were not so it would be impossible for us 
to build up our commerce overseas. 

In 1904 an American citizen of Greek ancestry, Ion 
Perdicaris, was seized by a bandit named Raisuli in 
Morocco and held a prisoner. President Roosevelt 
cabled to our representative that we must have "Perdi- 
caris alive or Raisuli dead." Perdicaris was promptly 
surrendered uninjured. 

Arbitration and the League of Nations. — In an effort 
to prevent war with all its cost in suffering and lives, the 
arbitration of disputes between nations was often re- 
sorted to during the last century. Our country has been 
a leader in developing this method of settling interna- 




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WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 71 

tional quarrels. A court of arbitration is always ar- 
ranged for by treaty and the two nations submit their 
arguments to this court exactly as two citizens try a 
case before a judge. A permanent court of arbitration 
was established by the great nations at the Hague Peace 
Conference in 1899. 

This system, however, did not prevent the Great War 
from breaking out in 1914. Overwhelmed by the 
terrible losses of this war the nations of the world sought 
in the League of Nations a more effective means of ar- 
bitrating disputes and preventing war. It is the hope 
of the whole civilized world that peace has been made 
more secure for the future and that the danger of war 
will grow smaller and smaller. 

Enemies at Home.— The national government also pro- 
tects us against the graver forms of disorder at home. 
It cannot do ordinary police work. That is left to the 
States, as we have seen. Your local policeman is ex- 
pected to protect you against thieves, and there is a 
State militia (our State volunteers) which the governor 
can call out to protect property and lives when there is 
disorder. But if a riot or a rebellion grows serious and 
the State authorities are unable to quell it, the State 
Legislature (or if the legislature is not in session, the 
governor) is entitled to call upon the President to 
send troops of the national army to help. (Art. IV, 
Sec. 4.) Under the same section it is made the duty 
of the national government to see that every State 
has "a republican form of government." This means 
that no State can set up a monarchy or any tyranny, 
and that all the troops of the United States will be 



72 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

called out if necessary to compel popular government 
in a State. 

In one other way the national government preserves 
order within the States. The President must "take 
care that the laws be faithfully executed.' ' (Art. II, 
Sec. 3.) To do this he can use the entire army if neces- 
sary. When a strike tied up the mails in Chicago in 
1894 President Cleveland sent national troops to pre- 
serve order and prevent the mails from being held up 
or destroyed. The mails were not stopped. 

These services show how fortunate we are to live in a 
strong, stable, unified nation, that gains us respect 
wherever we travel abroad and holds our lives and 
liberties, our property and our happiness safe against 
riot and rebellion at home. 

2. The Lessee Services 

Other Services.— We come now to the simpler and 
lesser things that the national government does for 
us. These have increased constantly with the growth 
of the country, and are likely to increase more. Why? 

Our Changed Conditions. — Just consider what the 
country was like in 1789. Then most Americans were 
farmers, and each farmer grew almost everything that 
he and his family ate — wheat, pork, mutton, beef, 
milk, eggs, and so forth. His wife spun the wool and 
made the clothes. There were no factories. There was 
very little trading between States. To-day, the farms 
are mostly huge farms, each growing a few products 
which are shipped all over the country. The wheat 
farmer grows chiefly wheat, and so forth. Cattle are 



WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 73 

raised in the ranching States of the West, packed at the 
great meat-packing centres, Chicago and Kansas City, 
and shipped to every city and village in the nation. In 
the same way clothes are no longer made at home; they 
are made in New York and other large cities for the 
whole country. Wonderful machines have been in- 
vented for spinning and weaving and every other manu- 
facturing process, and to operate them great factories 
have been built. Each factory makes one sort of thing, 
shoes, hats, ploughs, automobiles, etc., and what it 
produces is shipped everywhere. To deliver all these 
products railways were invented and developed as we 
know them to-day, crossing and crisscrossing the entire 
country. The freight charge is an important item in 
the price of everything we buy. 

Just think when you sit down for dinner how many 
States are serving you. The wheat for your bread was 
grown in North Dakota, let us say, and milled in Min- 
nesota. The steer that is now roast beef grazed in 
Texas and was killed and packed in Chicago. The 
apples came from Oregon, the oranges from Florida. 
The sugar-cane was grown in Louisiana and refined 
into sugar in New York. The salt was manufactured 
in Kansas. The coal that cooked the meal is from 
Pennsylvania. The perishables, the milk, fresh eggs, 
and fresh vegetables, came from your own or a near-by 
State. A dozen States contribute to the simplest 
meal. 

Take your knife and fork. If they are silver-plated, 
the silver was mined in Nevada, perhaps, the iron under- 
neath was mined in Michigan, shipped to Pittsburgh 



74 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

as ore and there smelted. The knife and fork were 
finally made in Connecticut. 

The leather hide for your shoes very likely came off 
a Texan steer, killed at Chicago. The shoes were man- 
ufactured in Massachusetts. 

All this long-distance trade increases the work of the 
national government. When a farmer grows all his 
own food he knows that it is pure and healthful. Or if 
he buys it from a neighbor that he knows and can trust 
he can be sure. But if he has to buy meat packed in 
Chicago or Kansas City by a stranger, he cannot possi- 
bly tell. So the government, which is to say, all of us 
clubbed together, sends an inspector to do this for us. If 
it is milk from his own State, his State government can 
inspect the dairies to see that the cows are healthy. 
But no State can act outside its own borders and most 
foods, as we saw, come from other States; so there is a 
big job here which the government at Washington 
alone can do. 

Our vast and elaborate means of communication, the 
post-office, the railroads, the telephone, and telegraph, 
also raise national problems which only the national 
government can handle. The government has always 
run the post-office, as we know. It fixed the railroad 
rates for a number of years, as we shall see, and began 
to operate the railroads during the Great War. As to 
whether the government can run efficiently such a com- 
plex and difficult business as our railroads there is grave 
debate. But there is general agreement that our rail- 
roads must be fully controlled and regulated by the 
national government. 



WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 75 

America has become one large family, everybody 
working for everybody else, and dependent on every- 
body else. No one can prosper alone. What happens 
in one State affects the whole country. Every section 
and every kind of worker must be prosperous and con- 
tented, or the whole country suffers. 

We must be cautious in increasing the activities of 
our national government, for that way lies danger of 
interference with our liberties. We must keep our 
State governments strong and use them as far as we 
can. But when changed conditions call for new national 
regulation or work we must not hesitate to give our 
government at Washington the necessary power. 

Money. — A uniform system of money or currency is 
an essential basis of buying and selling and commerce 
in a modern nation. Therefore the States are forbid- 
den by the Constitution to coin money (Art. I, Sec. 10, 
Par. 1) and the national government has the sole power 
(Art. I, Sec. 8, Par. 5). Before 1789 the States had 
flooded the country with paper money that in some 
instances had become worthless. 

Our coins are minted at mints located at Philadel- 
phia, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Denver. The 
coins now issued are: gold coins, double eagle, eagle, 
half-eagle, and quarter-eagle (no one-dollar gold pieces 
have been coined since 1890) ; silver coins, dollar, half- 
dollar, quarter-dollar, dime; nickel, five cents; copper, 
one cent. The gold and silver coins contain an alloy 
of copper and nickel to make them hard enough to 
withstand wear. The metal is first rolled out into 
strips, round pieces called "blanks" are next cut out, 



76 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

these are carefully weighed, and the "blanks" that are 
of correct weight are then stamped with the design and 
the edge milled in a press. 

The government has also issued a vast amount of 
paper money. It is all exchangeable or redeemable in 
coin. It is of seven kinds: 

Gold and Silver Certificates,— A dollar of gold or silver 
coin is on deposit in the United States Treasury for each 
dollar of these certificates. These two forms of cur- 
rency make almost half of the entire stock of money in 
circulation. 

Greenbacks.— These were notes of the government, 
promises to pay without interest, issued during the 
Civil War when the government was hard pressed for 
funds. Because they were not then exchangeable for 
gold or silver, and because the credit of the government 
was then under a great strain, they depreciated greatly 
in value. In 1879 the government began to redeem 
them in coin, and since then they have been worth 
their full value. They are reissued as redeemed. 

Sherman Treasury Notes.— These are Treasury notes 
like the greenbacks, but issued under an act passed in 
1890 and redeemable in coin. They are cancelled as 
redeemed and only a small quantity are now outstand- 
ing. 

National Bank iVoJes.—- These are notes issued by 
those banks throughout the country which are organized 
under a national law and supervised by the national 
government, and are called national banks. Next to 
gold and silver certificates they form the largest body of 
paper money in circulation. 



WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 77 

Federal Reserve Notes and Bank-Notes. — These were 
provided for in 1913 under a new central control of the 
nation's banking facilities through the Federal Reserve 
Board. 

The amount and kinds of money in circulation in the 
United States on December 31, 1916, were as follows: 

MEDIUM AMOUNT 

Gold coin (including bullion in the Treasury) $679,702,890 

Silver dollars 72,330,864 

Lesser silver coins 190,171,320 

Gold certificates 1,660,030,029 

Silver certificates 476,795,613 

U. S. notes (greenbacks) 341,271,554 

Treasury notes of 1890 2,035,188 

National Bank notes 708,817,446 

Federal Reserve notes 298,013,235 

Federal Reserve bank-notes 11,764,495 

Total $4,440,932,634 

Population of continental United States estimated at 103,287,000 

Circulation per capita $43 .00 

The Post-Office. — Let us next take up the oldest of 
the business undertakings of the government. There 
were 75 post-offices in 1789 in the whole country, and it 
cost 25 cents to send a letter more than 450 miles. 
There are now over 60,000 post-offices and for years you 
could send a letter from Portland, Maine, to Manila in 
the Philippines, over 10,000 miles, for 2 cents. This 
rate was raised to 3 cents during the Great War. 

Our post-office system is one of the largest businesses 
in the world, but it is not run as other businesses are, to 
make a profit. It is run to educate and inform and 
unify the nation. That is why the rates are so low, 



78 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

that is why letter rates are equal wherever the Stars 
and Stripes are flown. It costs the government very 
little to deliver a newspaper to a man a few blocks away 
in a city. It costs the government a good deal, far 
more than it gets, to deliver that same newspaper to a 
ranch on an R. F. D. route a thousand miles away in 
Wyoming. Yet it charges only a fraction of the 
larger cost of the larger haul. That is because both 
men are Americans, and both must be informed of pub- 
lic events and public opinion, in order to be good citi- 
zens. The success of government by the people rests 
upon the mails quite as much as upon the public schools. 
The post-office service has grown steadily, and now 
includes these five things : 

1. It delivers mail from door to door in cities and 
larger villages, and by rural free delivery it carries mail 
over miles and miles of country roads to farmers remote 

from villages. 

2. It registers letters so as to make their safe delivery 

more certain. 

3. It sends money by postal orders. 

4. Since 1911 it has run the Postal Savings Bank, 
accepting deposits and paying a low rate of interest 

to depositors. 

5. Since 1913 it has been carrying parcels by parcel- 
post, doing work formerly done by the express com- 
panies. 

Railway Rates.— A large slice of what we pay for 
everything we buy goes to the railroad that carried it 
from State to State, and finally to the place where we 
bought it. Think of that dinner-table again. The 



WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 79 

orange from Florida, the wheat from Minnesota, the 
roast beef from Texas, all paid a railway charge which 
the grocer and butcher had to add into the price they 
charged you. Therefore, it is very important that 
railway rates should be fair, and be as low as possible 
without cheating the railroads. 

Congress has no control over commerce on railroads 
wholly within one State. As we have seen, the Consti- 
tution gives Congress entire control of interstate com- 
merce, that is, commerce between States. (Art. I, Sec. 
8.) There were nothing but stage-coaches when the 
Constitution was written, but the makers had the fore- 
sight to use such general and far-reaching terms that it 
has provided for every development. Through its con- 
trol of "commerce," Congress has provided for the fixing 
of fair and reasonable rates on all interstate traffic, 
freight and passengers alike. This has been done 
through the Interstate Commerce Commission. This is 
one of the most important services that the national 
government has undertaken. It is another case in 
which the government steps in and sees that there is 
fair play for all, railroad, farmer, manufacturer; and 
consumer alike. 

Panama Canal. — The national government severed the 
American continent at Panama for the convenience of 
the worlds commerce, and also to give a swift passage 
from coast to coast for our war-ships, and thus make the 
defense of our nation easier. A strip of land ten miles 
wide, running across the isthmus, was bought from the 
republic of Panama in 1904. The canal was built by 
the War Department and was completed in 1915. The 



80 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

work was the most extraordinary engineering feat in the 
history of the world. 

The Nation's Health.— If you will look at some meat 
the next time you are in your butcher's shop you will 
see that it is stamped "Inspected." That mark was 
put upon it at the packer's, in Chicago, let us say, by a 
United States inspector. This is one of the most val- 
uable services the government does for us. These in- 
spectors watch every piece of meat that is packed, they 
condemn every piece that is diseased or unfit, and pass 
only the sound, wholesome meat. 

This is done under the pure food and drug law passed 
in 1906. It applies, of course, only to interstate com- 
merce. Under this law drugs are required to be pure, 
and foods must be pure and wholesome and free from 
poisonous and injurious substances. Labels on foods 
and drugs must tell the truth. Inspectors watch fac- 
tories the country over, destroy food that is adulterated 
and have fines imposed upon manufacturers who violate 
the law. 

This important work that means so much to the 
health of all of us is under the general charge of the 
Secretary of Agriculture. 

The Farmer. — The national government has done much 
to aid and encourage the farmer. With each new 
Territory added to the Union, vast, unsettled public 
lands have come into the ownership of the government. 
These have been largely given to actual settlers under 
the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided that any 
person could secure 160 acres by settling on it and cul- 
tivating it for five years. In this way we have become 




From a photograph by the U . S. Reclamation Service 

IRRIGABLE LAND IN WASHINGTON STATE BEFORE RECLAMATION 



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From a photograph by the U. S. Reclamation Service 

APPLE ORCHARD, WASHINGTON STATE; THE RESULT OF RECLAMATION 



WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 81 

a nation of landowners. (As you will recall, these pub- 
lic lands are in charge of the Department of the In- 
terior.) 

The best of this land has now been given out and the 
government has begun a series of great irrigation sys- 
tems to reclaim tracts of desert and semiarid lands. 
Huge dams have been built and water stored in them 
to be distributed by canals and ditches over the dry 
sections. These lands are sold in small tracts to actual 
settlers. 

Up to 1916 the United States Reclamation Service 
had dug 9,805 miles of canals, 1,139 miles of ditches, and 
91 tunnels. Enough reservoir capacity had been con- 
structed to cover the States of New Jersey and Dela- 
ware with water 16 inches deep. Projects completed 
and begun will serve over 3,000,000 acres of irrigable land. 

Among the famous dams constructed are the Arrow- 
rock Dam for the storage of the water of the Boise River 
in southern Idaho, 348.6 feet in height and 1,100 in 
length, the highest dam in the world, and the Roose- 
velt Dam, 280 feet high and 1,020 feet long on the Salt 
River near Phoenix, Arizona. 

The Department of Agriculture studies the farmers 
problems, the breeding, feeding, and diseases of ani- 
mals, the improving of crops by new varieties of seeds, 
the soils in the different parts of the country, with the 
crops best suited to them, the insects and diseases which 
attack plants, trees, and grains; and distributes bulle- 
tins telling what it discovered. It also conducts the 
Weather Bureau, which warns every one, farmers in- 
cluded, of cold waves, frosts, and storms. 



82 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

Conservation.— One-quarter of the United States is 
still covered with forests, but it is estimated that if we 
go on cutting as wastefully as we have and make no 
provision for reforestation or other care our forests will 
be entirely cut down in fifty years. This shows how 
recklessly we have been using our natural resources, 
and why our new national conservation policy is so 
important. Under it more than one-third of our forest 
acreage has been placed in the forest reserves of the 
government in charge of the Forest Service of the De- 
partment of Agriculture. Forest rangers patrol these 
areas, prevent cutting except according to the rules of 
careful forestry, extinguish fires, and guard against 
them by building firebreaks along the crests of ranges, 
and direct reforestation. The whole country benefits 
by this foresight and watchful care. 

The principles of conservation include also the de- 
velopment of our vast water-power, so as to avoid 
monopoly and furnish power to as many citizens as 
possible. 

Labor. — The Department of Labor studies the labor 
problems and labor laws of the several States and of 
the world, and publishes reports upon them. 

The regulation of labor in factories so as to protect 
workers from injury and disease rests chiefly with the 
State governments, since the national power of regula- 
tion is restricted to interstate commerce. National 
laws have been passed limiting the hours of trainmen 
and telegraphers employed in interstate business, and a 
workman's compensation law applying to railroads en- 
gaged in interstate commerce has also been enacted. 




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WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 83 

This law gives every such workman, if injured while at 
work, a certain fixed sum, graded according to the ex- 
tent of the injury; or if he is killed a fixed sum must be 
paid his family. The national government has also 
attempted to prevent child labor on goods entering inter- 
state commerce. 

The Protective Tariff. — One of the great political issues 
throughout the history of the nation has been "protec- 
tion." A small tariff (a customs duty) upon goods 
from foreign countries operates merely as a tax to pro- 
duce revenue. Protection means imposing a tariff so 
large that foreign goods cannot be profitably imported, 
thus protecting American industries from foreign com- 
petition. The Republican party has argued that only 
thus could manufacturing be developed and maintained 
and labor paid its present wages, since wages are higher 
in America than elsewhere, and it is therefore not pos- 
sible to produce goods as cheaply here as elsewhere. 
It has contended that protection benefited laborer and 
manufacturer alike. The Democratic party has argued 
that the country would be better off if it could buy 
foreign-made goods cheaply and let only such manu- 
facturing develop as would develop naturally. The 
Democratic party has therefore stood for free trade 
(that is, no tariff) or a tariff for revenue only. 

The decision of this question is one of the many 
political issues that you will have to vote upon and 
help decide. Whatever its merits, however, whichever 
side is right, the country long had a highly protective 
tariff and still has a protective tariff. The result has 
been to stimulate manufacturing tremendously and the 



84 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

protective tariff must be classed as one of the many 
means our national government has used to develop the 
nation. 

The Control of Trusts. — One of the most serious prob- 
lems in preserving fair play in American life has been 
raised by the growth of huge businesses called trusts or 
combinations. The old theory of our business life was 
that every bright and energetic young man could start 
out for himself as an independent manufacturer or 
dealer. Competition among these small concerns both 
gave free play for ability to show itself and also kept 
prices down for the public that bought. In many lines 
this condition still exists. But in some, meat packing, 
for instance, the small concerns have all been merged 
into a few and these large corporations control the 
field. These conditions shut out the small beginner 
and permit an unfair raising of prices since competi- 
tion is largely ended. Such single control of any one 
line is called a monopoly. 

To secure a return of fair play, both for the small 
business man and for the public, the nation has passed a 
number of laws, the chief being the Sherman Anti-trust 
Law of 1890. Under this law great trusts, like the 
Standard Oil and the tobacco companies, were split up 
by the courts into their original small concerns. In 
1914 this was supplemented by the Clayton Act, defin- 
ing what "unfair trade methods" are and creating a 
Federal Trade Commission to enforce the law. 

The problem is a very difficult one, and there has 
been much disagreement as to what remedy should be 
used* There is no question that combinations can 



WHAT THE NATION DOES FOR US 85 

reduce costs, since they buy and manufacture and 
sell in larger quantities than the small manufacturer. 
This saving is of value to us all — provided we get the 
benefit of it in lower prices. Therefore some argue 
that we should not compel the combinations to dissolve, 
but should regulate prices. Others believe that trusts 
should be split up and competition fostered by means 
of the laws which now prevent "unfair trade practices," 
such as selling goods far below cost to drive out a com- 
petitor, and obtaining " rebates" from railroads, that 
is, secret agreements for cheaper rates. 

The trust problem is the problem of fair play in busi- 
ness for the manufacturer, for the laborer, for the pub- 
lic. It has been solved only in part. 

The States have also passed many laws in an effort 
to end monopoly or prevent its evils, but with little 
success since their laws cannot touch interstate com- 
merce. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 

1. The State 

State Governments, — We now come to the govern- 
ments of the States. As you will recall, each State is 
left free by the Constitution to govern itself as it sees 
fit in its local concerns. That is our theory of home 
rule. It possesses all powers not delegated to the 
national government and not denied to it by the Con- 
stitution. (Amendment X.) Therefore it is impossible 
to describe any one system of State government that 
will hold true of all forty-eight States. As a matter of 
fact, no two are exactly alike. What follows is only a 
rough sketch which must be filled in and perhaps altered 
a little to apply to your own State. 

In general outline the State governments are very 
much like the national government. The seat of the 
State government is the State capital. There are three 
branches exactly as in the government at Washington. 

The State Executive. — The executive (corresponding to 
the President) is the governor, elected directly by 
the people of the State. His term is usually two or 
four years. His salary ranges from $2,500 in Nebraska 
and Vermont to $12,000 in Illinois. The lieutenant- 
governor corresponds to the Vice-President. 

One important difference to be noted is that some of 
the governor's chief assistants are always elected along 

86 



THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 87 

with him by the people and not appointed by him. A 
treasurer and a comptroller (who handle the funds of 
the State), a secretary of state and an attorney-general 
are usually among these. (Do not confuse this secre- 
tary of state with the national secretary of state, who 
has charge of our foreign affairs. The State, as we 
have seen, has no foreign affairs, and its secretary is 
simply the keeper of the State's records and election 
returns.) A governor thus has no body of chosen ad- 
visers exactly corresponding to the President's Cabinet, 
and he cannot select or control his chief agents. 

This feature of our State governments has been much 
criticised, for it divides responsibility and prevents 
unified handling of the State's affairs. It also puts an 
undue burden on the voter, who often does not know 
anything about the minor candidates. The " short 
ballot" is the name given to the plan of cutting down 
the number of elective offices. We have a "short 
ballot' ; in the national election now, for we vote only 
for President, Vice-President, senator, and representa- 
tive. The "short-ballot" movement would apply the 
same principle to State, county, township, city, and vil- 
lage. 

Appointments. — The governor has many appoint- 
ments to make. Chief among these are a superinten- 
dent of education, who has general supervision of the 
public schools, a superintendent of prisons, and a State 
engineer, who has care of the State highways. 

Many States have created numerous boards or com- 
missions in recent years to handle various matters, all 
appointed by the governor. There are boards of agri- 



88 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

culture, food, and dairies, live stock, fish, and mining, 
which collect and diffuse information to promote these 
interests. There are boards of health, bureaus of labor 
and statistics, geological commissions, and forestry 
boards, which collect facts, conduct scientific research 
and (in the case of the State board of health) execute 
certain laws. There are supervising boards which regu- 
late railroads, insurance companies, banks, etc. There 
are boards of examiners for those who wish to become 
dentists, pharmacists, barbers, etc. There are boards 
which have supervision of the prisons, hospitals, asy- 
lums, etc. This commission system has been much 
criticised for the diffusion of responsibility which it 
produces. 

The State civil service has passed through the same 
stages as the national service, and many States have 
passed civil-service reform laws to reduce the spoils 
system of appointment, just as the national govern- 
ment has. 

Commander-in-Chief. — The governor is commander-in- 
chief of the military forces of the State, that is, the 
State militia composed of volunteers subject to the call of 
the governor. The department head of the State militia 
is the adjutant-general, appointed by the governor, who 
also has a military staff to accompany him at public 
ceremonies. In time of peace, the State militia are 
called out by the governor to suppress riots and mobs, 
and generally to preserve order when the police are 
unable to maintain it. In time of war the State militia 
is taken over by the national government, as it was dur- 
ing the Great War. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 89 

Pardons. — The governor has a pardoning power like 
the President's, but it is usually restricted. In many 
States a board of pardons is provided winch either hears 
pleas for pardon and makes recommendations to the 
governor, or passes finally on all pardons, and must 
approve before they take effect. Included in the right 
of pardon are the power to grant a reprieve (that is, a 
stay of the execution of a sentence, the death penalty, 
for instance) pending investigation or some legal step, 
and the power to commute a sentence, that is, change 
it to a lesser sentence. The President's pardoning 
power includes these same features, but it is not as 
important, since the control of most crimes rests with 
the States. 

Legislative Powers. — These are like the legislative 
powers of the President. He can call the legislature in 
special session in an emergency, he sends messages to 
the legislature, he can veto bills (in every State except 
North Carolina). The legislature can pass a bill over 
his veto by a two-thirds vote in some States, a three- 
fifths vote in others, or a bare majority in a few others. 

The State Legislature. — The legislature has two houses 
contrasting in size and length of term very much as do 
the House and Senate at Washington, and varying 
greatly in size. The larger body is called the House 
of Representatives, Assembly, or House of Delegates. 
The smaller body is called the Senate. Regular ses- 
sions are held every two years in most States; in 
Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode 
Island, Georgia, and South Carolina every year; and in 
Alabama once in every four years. State legislators 



90 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

are elected by districts, and for this purpose each State 
is divided into two sets of districts, larger ones for 
senators, smaller ones for representatives. Districts are 
usually arranged on the basis of population, so that 
each senator represents about the same number of 
inhabitants and each representative represents about 
the same number. But sometimes each senator repre- 
sents a county, and in Connecticut each member of 
the lower house represents a "town" (see Section 2 
of this chapter for a description of this peculiar New 
England unit), a most unjust system for the "towns" 
containing large cities. The salaries of State legislators 
are small, ranging from $3 a day in Kansas and Oregon, 
or $120 a year in South Carolina, up to $1,500 a year in 
New York. The houses are organized and bills are 
introduced and passed very much as at Washington. 

The State Constitution and Courts. — There is a State 
constitution exactly as there is a national Constitution; 
and there are State courts (including a supreme court 
sitting at the capital) to interpret the State laws and 
the State constitution. The State constitution contains 
a Bill of Rights protecting the freedom of the people, 
their religious liberty, their right of free speech, exactly 
as does the national Constitution. Your State consti- 
tution is the highest law of the State, just as the na- 
tional Constitution is the highest law of the nation. 
It is a most important protection of the people's rights, 
for it restrains the State legislature from interfering 
with your freedom, just as the national Constitution 
restrains Congress. 

The national Constitution is, of course, binding on 
the State legislature, just as it is binding on everybody 



THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 91 

else. But by a curious omission it does not protect 
religious liberty or the right of free speech or personal 
liberty against State laws. This is not a serious matter 
since all the State constitutions fully protect these rights 
and always have protected them. It was because the 
State constitutions already contained these Bills of 
Rights in 1787 that the national Constitution omitted 
to cover this point. 

The powers of each State are very wide, as we have 
seen (and shall examine in detail in the next chapter). 
But the powers of State legislatures have been much 
limited by means of detailed provisions in the State 
constitutions. That is to say, the people of the indi- 
vidual States have not trusted their legislatures with 
the same freedom that the people of the whole country 
have trusted Congress. There is usually a debt limit 
beyond which the State legislature cannot go, and limits 
to taxation are often fixed. In some States the legisla- 
ture is limited by constitutional restrictions upon almost 
every subject. One result of this condition is that 
our State constitutions are very long and confused by 
comparison with our national Constitution. This ten- 
dency to put matters in State constitutions which might 
better be left to the judgment of State legislatures has 
been much criticised. 

Amendments. — State constitutions require frequent 
amendment, owing to the large amount of detailed legis- 
lation in them. They can be amended in two ways, as 
a rule: 1. By a constitutional convention called by the 
legislature, in which case an entirely new constitution 
may be drafted. Whatever the convention adopts 
must be submitted to the voters and takes effect only 



92 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

if ratified by them. 2. The State legislature itself can 
propose amendments. In some States a two-thirds 
vote is required. In others the amendment must be 
passed by a legislature in two different years. In all 
States the proposed amendment must be submitted to 
the voters exactly as after a constitutional convention. 
In the State of Oregon a third method is permitted: A 
certain small percentage of the voters can petition for 
an amendment, in which case it is submitted to popular 
vote without coming before either convention or legis- 
lature. This use of the "initiative," as it is called, will 
be discussed again in connection with elections in Chap- 
ter XVII, Section 6. 

The State Courts. — These are necessarily much more 
numerous and complex than the federal courts, for they 
handle many more cases since the State laws control 
most of the common affairs of life. The titles and 
organizations vary in the different States, the general 
plan is as follows: 

1. Justice of the peace. Elected by the town. (In 

cities, police magistrates try the same cases.) 

2. County judge. Elected by the county. 

3. Superior, district, or circuit court. Elected by dis- 

tricts (each usually including several counties) 
in most States, but appointed by the governor 
in some States and elected by the State legis- 
lature in others. 

4. Supreme court or court of appeals. Elected by 

the people of the State in most States, but 
appointed by the governor in some States and 
elected by the State legislature in others. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 93 

The justice of the peace tries small crimes and civil 
suits for small sums, up to $50 or $100 as a rule. 

The county judge tries cases of more importance, 
civil suits up to a limit usually of a few thousand dol- 
lars, and almost all criminal trials. He also has charge 
of the important matters of wills (by which property is 
left at death) and the guardianship of children whose 
parents have died. For these reasons he is sometimes 
called the probate court (for the "proving" of wills) 
or judge of the orphan's court. Sometimes there is a 
separate court for these latter purposes. "Surrogate" 
is another name for the judge having charge of those 
matters relating to the property of the dead. 

The trial of all other cases, civil and criminal, comes 
before the superior, district, or circuit court as it is va- 
riously called. 

The supreme court or court of appeals hears only ap- 
peals from the lower courts. It does not try cases, 
it only settles doubtful questions of law that have 
arisen in trials. It sits at the State capital and is a 
court of great importance and distinction. The only 
court above it is the Supreme Court of the United States. 
Appeals can be taken from a State supreme court to 
the national supreme court when, and only when, a ques- 
tion involving the national Constitution arises. In all 
other cases the decision of the State supreme court is 
final. It is, therefore, the final interpreter of the State 
laws and State constitution. 

States Are Not Nations. — Each State is thus governed 
very much as if it were a little nation. But you al- 
ready know why it is not^ really a nation at all. Its 



94 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

power to govern itself is strictly limited to local affairs, 
to building roads and punishing murder, and so on, 
within its own borders. It cannot do the things that a 
real nation can do. It cannot make war, it cannot 
impose a tariff against a foreign country or between 
States, it cannot coin money, it cannot make a treaty 
with a foreign nation. (These restrictions upon the 
States are contained in Art. I, Sec. 10 of the Constitu- 
tion.) It yielded up all these national rights in enter- 
ing the Union — that is, in becoming part of one united 
nation. 

Our Double Government.— This idea of double govern- 
ment, of forty-eight State governments all under one 
federal government, seems confusing at first. But it 
works without serious confusion, since each govern- 
ment has its own job assigned to it and must stick to 
that job. It is as simple as the case of the postman 
and the policeman discussed before. Both walk the 
same street and serve the same houses without any 
conflict; yet one takes his orders and is paid from Wash- 
ington, the other from the city or village. 

2. County and Town 

County and Town.— Each State subdivides itself into 
a number of small districts, and gives these districts a 
large measure of home rule. No two States handle this 
problem alike and, of course, a State can change the 
system of local government whenever it pleases. That 
is entirely within its own control. All States are divided 
into counties (except Louisiana, which has "parishes"). 
These counties are divided again into smaller districts 



THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 95 

called by various names, but usually towns or town- 
ships. Also, in all States where a number of people live 
close together, that is, in a village or a city, they are 
permitted to govern themselves as a separate unit. 

There are three main types of local government, the 
town system of New England, the county system of the 
South and the Far West, and the township system of 
the Middle West. 

The Town System. — This grew up around the New 
England meeting-house or church. Once a year the 
voters go in person to a "town meeting," now held in a 
"town hall." Here they discuss the needs of the com- 
munity, fix the tax rate, pass by-laws (that is to say, 
town laws, for "by" is an old English word meaning 
town), and elect town officers. These latter include a 
board of from three to nine selectmen who have general 
charge of the business of the town, a clerk (who keeps 
the town records), tax assessors, a treasurer, overseers of 
the poor, a school committee, constables (to keep the 
peace), and surveyors of highways (who keep roads in 
repair). There are many other minor officials. In the 
town of Middlefield (Mass.) there were recently 18 
town officials to 82 voters. Two or three other town 
meetings are usually held in the course of a year, at 
which other town business is discussed and settled. 

Do not misunderstand this use of the word town in 
New England. It does not mean a city or a village as it 
does elsewhere. A New England town usually includes 
a village; but it includes the surrounding farms as well, 
an area of perhaps four or five square miles, with an 
average of 3,000 inhabitants. 



96 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

The town meeting exists chiefly in New England 
(though Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota 
use it). Elsewhere, voters elect their officers by ballot 
on Election Day, and never gather in a meeting. You 
can see that the New England system is best suited to 
a small and compact community. 

In this system the town was the original unit, and has 
remained the important unit, and the county, appear- 
ing later, has much less to do than elsewhere. It is 
merely a group of towns with a county-seat, at which 
sit county judges (with a sheriff to carry out their judg- 
ments, make arrests, etc.), and county commissioners 
whose chief business is the care of highways. 

The County System. — There are smaller divisions than 
the county in the Southern States, bearing various 
names, but they have little importance. All the local 
governing is done by the county officers. This system 
arose in the South, because it was sparsely settled, and 
as population has increased there has been a tendency 
(in North Carolina and West Virginia, for example) to 
develop townships. But generally the county controls 
everything. The county system also prevails in Colo- 
rado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, California, 
Oregon, and Washington. 

The government elected consists of a board of county 
commissioners, a treasurer, a superintendent of educa- 
tion, a superintendent of the poor, and an overseer of 
roads. There are also county judges, a county prose- 
cutor or State's attorney, a sheriff and a coroner (who 
investigates mysterious deaths). The county-seat is an 
important spot, since there are the county court-house, 
the county jail, and all the county records. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 97 

The board of commissioners has much power in this 
system. It has entire charge of the business of the 
county, including the erection of county buildings, the 
levying of taxes, the making of appropriations, the 
building and repair of roads, and the care of the poor. 

The sheriff is a highly important officer. Aided by 
his deputy sheriffs, he is responsible for the peace of 
the whole county, and he carries out the orders of the 
county court. If property is ordered sold to pay a 
judgment, the sheriff does it. If a murderer is sentenced 
to death, the sheriff hangs him. If need be to maintain 
order or hunt down a criminal, he can call to his aid 
every able-bodied man in the county, forming what is 
called a posse comitatus. All prisoners are in his cus- 
tody and he usually has charge of the county jail. 

The county clerk has charge of the records of the 
county. All deeds, etc., are recorded either with him 
or with a register of deeds. 

In the South the schools are usually in charge of a 
county school board with full power to establish and 
run schools. 

The Township System. — This is sometimes called the 
'' mixed system/' since it combines features of both 
town and county systems. In all these States the 
county appeared first, and the township came later as 
population grew more dense, and the township has never 
gained the importance of the New England town. It 
prevails in the Middle Atlantic States and the Middle 
West. In the West the township is a product of the 
original government survey which mapped out the land 
in regular plots six miles square, and called these " town- 
ships." In these States the local township governments 



98 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

usually developed around the schoolhouse, just as the 
New England town had developed around the church. 

There are two general types, that of New York (in 
which the township is more important than the county) 
and that of Pennsylvania (in which the county is the 
more important unit). Since in the development of the 
country westward settlers followed lines of latitude, 
roughly speaking, most of the northerly States followed 
the example of New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Min- 
nesota, for example. The States to the south, Ohio, 
Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and also 
North and South Dakota, followed Pennsylvania. In 
Illinois a division took place, the southern part pre- 
ferring the Pennsylvania type, the northern part the 
New York type. The State constitution gives each 
county its choice; and under this provision 85 out of 
102 counties have adopted the township system of the 
New York type. 

In the New York type the town meeting is usually 
preserved, but is not largely attended. The county 
board is composed of supervisors, one elected by each 
township. In the Pennsylvania type there are no 
town meetings and the county board consists of com- 
missioners elected by the whole county. 

The county, wherever the township system prevails, 
always has its county judges, prosecuting attorney, 
sheriff, and coroner. It usually has also a county clerk 
(and, sometimes, a register of deeds), a treasurer, a 
superintendent or commissioner of schools (whose pow- 
ers are supervisory), a superintendent of highways, and 
a superintendent of the poor (though the poor-houses 
are more apt to be run by the township). 




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THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 99 

Under the township system the schools may be run 
by the school directors or trustees of the township. 
But more often each township is divided into several 
school districts, and each of these districts elects a board 
called by various names, school committee, school 
trustees, board of education, etc., which has full charge 
of the school, including the right to raise money by 
taxes, to hire teachers, and to build schoolhouses. This 
election sometimes takes place as part of the general 
township election and sometimes is held at an annual 
school meeting of parents and taxpayers, resembling a 
New England town meeting. 

The township usually has the following officers: one, 
two, or three supervisors (who have charge of the roads, 
etc.), a clerk, tax assessors, a tax collector, overseers of 
the poor, school directors or trustees, justices of the 
peace (who try minor cases), and constables. 

You see how varied the methods of local government 
are. Each State works out its own plan suited to its 
own conditions. The thickly settled State can turn 
local affairs over to small units, the sparsely settled 
State can organize itself through larger units. Every 
local condition of country, population, and character 
can be considered and met. 

3. Village and City 

Village and City. — When people live close together all 
kinds of things must be done by the community which 
rural districts leave to the individual. Sidewalks must 
be paved, streets must be lit, sewers must be laid, water 
must be supplied in pipes from a distance (for in a 
congested district pumps and wells collect germs and 



100 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

spread disease) ; the danger of a fire spreading is much 
greater, so there must be an efficient fire department; 
burglars and toughs prefer villages and cities, so there 
must be an efficient police; traffic must be regulated; 
contagious diseases very carefully watched to prevent 
their spread, and so on. 

Now, the county or the town could, of course, handle 
all these matters for the village or the city. But that is 
not the American way. Since the village and the city 
have special problems, peculiar to them, the State gives 
them their own governments to handle their peculiar 
local problems. The grant of this right is called a char- 
ter. It organizes the village or city government just 
as a constitution does the State government. 

Village and city are much alike, except that the city 
government is more complicated and has, of course, 
much more to do. In some parts of the United States 
villages are called boroughs or towns. 

City Government. — A city elects a mayor and a city 
council, or board of aldermen, usually elected by wards. 
The aldermen are really a little legislature having power 
to pass what are called city ordinances, that is, local 
rules requiring householders to clear their sidewalks of 
snow, requiring houses to be built of fireproof materials, 
and so forth. The city council also raises money by 
taxes and directs how it shall be spent — for parks, 
streets, schools, etc. (In a few cities the city council 
consists of two houses as in a State legislature.) 

The mayor of a great city like New York, Chicago, or 
San Francisco is a very important and powerful officer. 
He is the chief executive, corresponding to the President 



THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE 101 

and the governor. He usually appoints all the heads 
of departments, that is to say, commissioners having 
charge of these matters : 

Police. 

Fire. 

Health. 

Street Cleaning. 

Parks. 

Tenements. 

Schools. 

Streets, Water, Gas, and Electricity. 

Taxes. 

The mayor also has a veto power upon the acts of 
the board of aldermen. There is great variety in the 
city governments, but the general outline is usually as 
above. 

The city has a number of important courts, in partic- 
ular the police courts, which deal with drunkenness and 
other small crimes. In many cities children's courts 
have now been created to give special care to children 
arrested and accused of crime. 

Commission Government. — More than three hundred 
cities have abandoned the foregoing system and are 
using "commission government." A small board, usu- 
ally of five members, is elected, and the entire business 
of governing^the city is turned over to it. The object 
is to unify control and responsibility. This system origi- 
nated in Galveston, Texas, after the great flood of 1900. 
The commission acts as both executive and legislature. 

A city manager is sometimes used under this plan. 
He is an expert, to whom the commission turns over 



102 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

the executive work very much as if the city were a busi- 
ness undertaking. The commission keeps its legislative 
powers. In choosing a city manager the commission can 
search the country over for the best expert it can find. 
It is hoped to develop city managers as able as the heads 
of our great private corporations. 

Where the commission system is used, it is customary 
to give the voters a direct voice in lawmaking by devices 
known as the initiative and referendum. These will be 
explained in detail in Chapter XVI, Section 6. 

Village Government. — A village elects a president and 
a board of trustees or councilmen; also a collector of 
taxes and treasurer. These meet regularly and transact 
all the business of the village, including the fixing of tax 
rates and the passing of village ordinances. They are 
executive and legislature combined. 

There is usually no village court, the local judge being 
the justice of the peace, who is chosen for a town or 
township. 

The village board of trustees does not have charge 
of the local public schools, it should be noted. These 
are in charge of officers chosen by the school district or 
town or township as described before. (This is unlike 
the city, which does run its schools.) 



CHAPTER XV 
WHAT THE STATE DOES FOR US 

1. Through State Officials 

State Government Important. — American voters some- 
times pay little interest to the election of their State 
officers, but they are really most important. They 
touch the daily life of every one of us, both directly and 
also through the fact that State laws create and control 
our local governments. 

Voting. — Each State has full power to say which of 
its citizens shall vote — for national officers, President, 
and congressmen as well as local officers. This is part 
of the home-rule policy of our Constitution. The only 
restriction is that of the Fifteenth Amendment, passed 
to secure the vote for the negro, which declares that 
"the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by 
any State on account of race, color, or previous condi- 
tion of servitude. ,, 

Laws of Person and Property. — It is the State that 
makes almost all of the laws affecting our persons and 
properties, of the utmost importance to every man, 
woman, and child. The law of marriage and divorce, 
who may marry and for what causes they may separate, 
is decided by each State. The State laws define all the 
common crimes — murder, robbery, etc. — and fix the 
sentence for each crime. The State builds and main- 
tains the jails for these punishments. All the rights of 

103 



104 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

property, how land may be bought and sold, what con- 
tracts must be in writing, and so on, are for the State 
legislatures to decide. The forest, fish, and game laws, 
stating at what seasons wild animals can be taken or 
shot, are State laws (except in the national parks, of 
course). This produces some confusion, for the^laws of 
no two States are alike. But it enables each State to 
pass the kind of laws best suited to its people and mode 
of life, and that is a great advantage. 

Health. — The State government maintains our asy- 
lums for the insane, the deaf, dumb, and blind. (Most 
hospitals are not State institutions but are run by pub- 
lic-spirited citizens and supported largely by gifts.) 
Many States have pure food and drug laws like the 
national law already described. 

Education.— The State has a commissioner of educa- 
tion who has general charge of the public schools. The 
general courses of study and examinations to be passed 
by each grade are often fixed by this State authority. 
The State university is supported by State funds, and 
there are usually State agricultural and engineering col- 
leges and State normal colleges to train teachers. It is 
to our State and local governments that we look for 
our education. 

Labor.— It is to the State that we must look for laws 
making our factories safe, for laws preventing children 
under fourteen from working, and similar laws. Inspec- 
tors travel about enforcing these laws, seeing that dan- 
gerous machinery is safeguarded, that crowded build- 
ings have fire-escapes, that there is sufficient fresh air, 
and that dozens of other rules are complied with. 



WHAT THE STATE DOES FOR US 105 

Workmen's compensation laws usually provide that 
a workman injured through his work must be paid 
by his employer a certain fixed sum, graded according 
to the amount of the injury; or if he is killed, a fixed 
sum paid to his family. Such laws thus parallel the 
national workmen's compensation act; but that benefits 
only workers on interstate railroads, whereas a State law 
can protect every worker injured within the State. 

Much has been accomplished and much remains to 
be done. The national government has done what it 
could to better the conditions of labor, but the main 
burden of this important reform work must be done 
by the States as part of their local power of regulation. 
Children under fourteen are still employed in the cot- 
ton-fields of the South and worked long hours in can- 
ning factories. Many States are far behind the humane 
and enlightened view of the time, which is that child 
labor stunts growth and mental development and causes 
disease, and thus is both cruel to the child and a waste 
of precious health and life to the community. The age 
of fourteen is now generally accepted as the age limit 
for regular work. 

Many States have also passed laws to prevent the 
overworking of women with long hours and to insure 
healthful labor conditions for them. 

A number of States are now experimenting with mini- 
mum wage laws, designed to prevent the paying of less 
than a living wage. 

State Highways. — All roads were formerly built by the 
town or county, but of late years many States have un- 
dertaken the building of important highways, forming 



106 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

through routes. Automobiles have hastened this new 
development. 

2. Through the City 

The City. — The closer people live together, the more 
they must do in common, that is, through their govern- 
ment, in order that they may live safely and comfort- 
ably. Therefore a large city does a great many more 
things than a village, and a village more things than a 
town or township or county for its rural districts. 
There must be more rules and regulations in a city — 
traffic rules, for instance, which are quite unnecessary 
in the country. If we take up city life first, we can 
then compare it with village and rural life to see how 
they differ. 

The Police Department. — Service in the police depart- 
ment is like service in the army. A policeman always 
goes armed, with a revolver and a night-stick. He 
wears a uniform. The chief differences are that he 
fights not an army but one criminal or a few criminals 
at a time, and that he fights usually alone. Every 
policeman risks his life in serving us. 

The policeman is the enemy of every law-breaker 
and the friend of every honest person. The traffic po- 
liceman helps little children cross a crowded street. 
Mounted policemen stop runaway horses. Finding lost 
children and returning them to their homes is a frequent 
duty. Many policemen have rescued men, women, and 
children from burning buildings. All this help to us is 
as much part of their duty as their work of watching 
for criminals night and day and arresting them at 
whatever risk. 




From a photograph copyright by the Vitagraph Co. 

A RESCUE IX THE PARK 




PATROLMAN* AND AMBULANCE SURGEON CARING FOR VICTIM OF AN ACCIDENT 

The surgeon is binding up the victim's head while one patrolman is writing down an 
account of the accident and another is holding back the crowd 



WHAT THE STATE DOES FOR US 107 

It is the duty of every citizen, man, boy, woman, and 
girl, to help a policeman whenever possible. That is 
the law, and it is common sense as well, for the police- 
man is our policeman, it is our laws that he is enforcing, 
our property that he is protecting, our lives that he 
may save. Boys and girls should know the policeman 
on their beat and help him. He is one of the best friends 
they have, and they may owe their life to him some 
day when their house catches afire or a runaway comes 
down the street. 

Every police force includes a large squad of detectives 
in plain clothes (therefore often called plain-clothes- 
men). At police headquarters is maintained a Rogues' 
Gallery, which contains not only photographs of all 
criminals but also nowadays accurate measurements of 
the head and other parts of the body taken according 
to a scientific system invented by a Frenchman, Ber- 
tillon. By this an arrested criminal giving a wrong 
name can be identified at once, and his whole record 
produced against him. 

The police department is run either by one man, 
called a chief of police, or by a board of police commis- 
sioners, in either case appointed by the mayor. His 
office is called police headquarters. The city is divided 
into precincts, each with a police station in charge of a 
police captain. 

The Fire Department. — Our firemen fight a war that 
never ends. At any hour of the day or night they 
must be ready to come to our rescue. The risk to their 
lives is even greater than that of policemen. They are 
every-day heroes, quite as brave and daring as any 
soldiers. 



108 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

The growth of tall buildings has made fire-fighting in 
cities much more difficult than it was, but inventions 
have kept pace with the difficulties. Water-towers, ex- 
tension ladders, and motor fire-engines are now familiar 
sights. If there are navigable waters about a city (as 
at New York), fireboats lend great aid. 

Volunteer firemen once ran the fire-apparatus of the 
cities, as they do still of our villages. But they have 
now given way to trained firemen paid by the city. 

Every boy and girl can (1) help to prevent fires, and 
(2) send in an alarm instantly if he or she discovers a 

fire. 

Fire prevention is now taught to every one, old and 
young, in every large city. Refuse is cleaned up and 
carted away to prevent spontaneous combustion (that 
is, fire that starts itself in greasy rags and other inflam- 
mable substances). Every one is taught not to throw 
away lighted matches or lighted cigarettes or cigars. 
Every one is taught the very great care required in 
handling alcohol, kerosene, and gasolene. Gasolene is 
particularly dangerous, for it is a high explosive that 
lays its own train — in the inflammable fumes which it 

sends off. 

Never try to put out a fire yourself until you have 
sent in an alarm. Every boy and girl ought to know 
where the nearest fire-box is and how to open it and 
pull down the hook. (Opening the door of the box 
does not send in the alarm.) If you have a telephone 
in the house, that is the quickest way. Simply take 
down the receiver and say to central: "I want to report 
a fire." Then tell exactly where it is, making sure that 




FIREMAN RESCUING A CHILD 



WHAT THE STATE DOES FOR US 109 

central repeats the street and number correctly. After 
you have sent in the alarm you can try to put out the 
fire. Any number of fires have gained dangerous head- 
way because people waited to send in an alarm until 
they had tried to put out the fire — and failed. 

The fire department is run by a fire commissioner 
appointed by the mayor. 

The Public Health. — The progressive city does any 
number of things to preserve and better the health of 
its citizens. The growth of medical science has taught 
us that the germs of disease threaten us in foul air, in 
impure food, in street dust, in dirt of every kind. Every 
person must keep clean to avoid sickness, and every 
home must be kept clean. Beyond this personal clean- 
liness no one can do much in a great city to make sure 
of protection against germs. The milk comes to us in 
a bottle from a dairyman we have never seen. No one 
can keep all the streets clean. So the community 
attends to these jobs for each of us. 

The city's health department (in charge of a health 
commissioner appointed by the mayor) inspects food- 
supplies, working with the national and State inspectors 
to protect the consumer from injurious foods. Most 
important of all is the milk-supply, which usually comes 
from within the State and is altogether a city affair. 
Impure milk causes the death of many babies and 
spreads many diseases. Milk inspectors not only test 
the milk when it arrives, but inspect the dairies and see 
that none but healthy cows are in the herds, and that 
cleanly methods prevail. 

The health department also prevents the spread of 



110 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

infectious diseases by quarantining every one who 
comes down with such a disease. Every doctor is re- 
quired to report every infectious case at once. There- 
upon the health-board officer posts notices of the quar- 
antine and sees that it is enforced. It is the duty of 
every one to obey such a quarantine, for otherwise the 
most deadly diseases would spread throughout a city. 

Many city health departments give much attention 
to public-school children. Inspectors look after their 
health, sometimes dental work is done free, and the 
rules of hygiene are explained and taught. 

The street-cleaning commissioner not only makes 
city streets agreeable, but prevents disease as well. 
By sweeping streets, flushing them with water, and 
removing garbage and waste in wagons, covered so as 
to prevent dust from blowing about, the street-cleaning 
department can contribute much to the health of a city 
as well as to its sightliness. It is every one's duty to 
help in this work by not throwing paper or refuse in 
the street. 

Fresh air is the greatest enemy of germs. That is 
why schoolrooms must be well ventilated and sleeping- 
rooms at home as well. The city does much to secure 
us fresh air through two departments. The park com- 
missioner has charge of the parks, and in a properly 
laid-out city there are ample parks so located as to 
offer breathing spaces in every crowded section. The 
tenement-house commissioner enforces rules requiring 
that every tenement shall have at least a certain amount 
of air space and a certain number of windows. The 
city also sees that there are enough stairways and fire- 



WHAT THE STATE DOES FOR US 111 

escapes to save every one in case of fire. Factories are, 
as we have seen, usually inspected and made safe and 
healthful by State inspectors. But city inspectors often 
do this work, too. 

Recreation.— Closely akin to these health measures 
are the playgrounds for children, band music in the 
parks, public beaches for bathing or public swimming- 
pools, and other sources of recreation. Everything 
that keeps people out in the open aids their health and 
many cities expend large sums of money to enable its 
inhabitants to play out-of-doors. These matters are 
usually in charge of the park commissioner. 

Education.— Every city runs its own schools, as we 
have seen, usually through a board of education ap- 
pointed by the mayor. Every city spends vast sums 
on its schools, but considers that it is money well in- 
vested, for only well-educated boys and girls grow up 
to be valuable and successful citizens. This education 
is a precious gift that every American community 
makes to every child. Every level-headed boy and girl 
takes it and makes the most of it. 

Many cities also own their public libraries, another 
important part of the education offered free to every 
citizen. 

Streets. — The paving of streets and the up-keep of 
them is a very important part of a city's service. Well- 
paved streets do more than anything else to make a 
city pleasant to live in. A commissioner of public 
works usually has charge of these matters. 

Water, Gas, Electricity, Street Railways. — Most cities 
own their water-works and many own their gas and 



112 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

electric plants. A very few run their street railways. 
For all these services the city charges rates just like a 
private company. When it does not own these ser- 
vices, the rates charged are regulated by commissions. 
Services of this kind are called public utilities, which 
simply means things of use to the public generally. It 
is the theory nowadays that private owners of such ser- 
vices must submit to reasonable regulation by the gov- 
ernment for the good of all. Whether a city shall own 
and run its street railways parallels the question ex- 
plained before, whether the national government shall 
own and run the interstate railways of the whole 
country. There are strong arguments on both sides. 

3. Through the Village 

The Village. — The progressive village does almost all 
of the things that the city does, but in a simpler way 
and on a much smaller scale. There is usually a chief 
of police and a small police force. The fire department 
is usually a volunteer organization, but it is often very 
efficient, and many villages now have motor fire-engines. 
There is not so much for a health officer to do, but his 
control of infectious diseases is important in preventing 
epidemics. Schools in villages can be just as good as 
city schools. 

4. In Rural Districts 

Rural Districts. — The farmer looks to his town or 
township and county government for such policing as 
he gets. The town constables are the regular police 
officers, but in case of any serious crime or disturbance 



WHAT THE STATE DOES FOR US 113 

the sheriff and his deputy sheriffs step in. A few States 
have a State police or State constabulary of mounted 
men, whose duty it is to patrol rural districts. 

The roads (other than the State highways) are built 
and repaired by the supervisors of the town or town- 
ship; or, in such a State as Virginia, by the county 
commissioners. 

Every farm, however remote, is included in a school 
district, and every boy and girl is entitled to education 
at the school of his district. 

The farmer must be his own fire department, and 
must supply himself with water from his own pump. 
He misses a great many of the services which the city 
dweller gets. On the other hand, he does not need 
them, for he is not exposed to the same danger from 
germs, from fire, from dirt. He is his own master in 
almost everything, and though he has to shift for him- 
self, he can order his life as he wills. 



CHAPTER XVI 
POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 

1. A Sacred Duty 

The Ballot. — We come now to the most important 
duty of an American, the basis of all the fine structure 
we have studied. That is to vote, wisely and patrioti- 
cally. A certain number of Americans always fail to 
turn up on Election Day. They are too lazy or too in- 
different. They are cheating themselves out of their 
birthright, that should be their proudest possession; 
they are cheating their country, for they enjoy her pro- 
tection and care, and they refuse to bear the chief re- 
sponsibility of citizenship. There is no magic in the 
word democracy. Unless the citizens of a country give 
it their best wisdom and aid whenever needed, it will 
become corrupt and fail and perish. 

2. Parties 

The Reason for Parties. — You must understand politi- 
cal parties in order to understand elections. There is 
nothing about them in the Constitution. They have 
grown up gradually to satisfy a natural tendency in 
human nature. That is to unite in groups in support of 
certain ideas and certain leaders. Sometimes a great 
leader creates an idea and the party forms around him. 
Sometimes the idea is developed by a party, and the 
leader is merely chosen to carry the idea into effect. 
Whichever way it happens, most people instinctively 

114 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 115 

join such a group. We call those who prefer to remain 
out of groups independents. They are a small but im- 
portant part of any community. 

The Two Main Parties. — There have usually been two 
main parties in the United States. Under changing 
names they have lasted down to our present time. In 
the first years of the republic the two parties were the 
Federalist (the party of Hamilton and John Adams) 
and the Democratic-Republican, usually called simply 
Republican (the party of Jefferson). The former be- 
lieved in a broad construction of the Constitution, giv- 
ing the national government wide powers. The latter 
believed in a strict construction, and in holding the 
national government to the powers clearly set forth in 
the Constitution. The dispute was largely over the 
"elastic clause" referred to before. (Art. I, Sec. 8, 
Par. 18.) 

In a very general way this distinction has lasted right 
through; only the names have become reversed. The 
original Republican party founded by Jefferson changed 
its name to Democratic about 1828, and has retained 
that name to this day. The Federalists lasted only a 
generation, being succeeded by the National Republicans 
of 1828, the Whigs from 1833 to 1854, and the Republi- 
cans of 1854 down to the present. New issues have 
arisen frequently. The present Republican party sprang 
up to oppose slavery and advocate a protective tariff. 
The Civil War ended slavery, and after that for many 
years the tariff was the chief issue. Of course many 
other issues have from time to time come to the front, 
and by the time of the Great War the issues had be- 



116 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

come much confused. But the original dispute over 
the strength of the national government still persists 
in some degree to distinguish the two parties. 

Third Parties. — Third parties have sprung up from 
time to time, as a new group appeared around a new 
idea or a new leader not acceptable to either of the 
old parties. (That was the way the new Republican 
party began in 1854.) Most of these parties die out 
after a few years. Of this type were the Populist party, 
a farmers party formed in 1892, and the Progressive 
party, formed in 1912 to advocate new policies under 
the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. The Socialist 
party is a third party which has slowly gained in strength 
and maintained its existence without electing many 
officials. 

Independent Voting. — Every voter must keep his mind 
alive to these changes, study the new problems as they 
arise, and decide whether or not he wishes to join a 
new party and how it seems wisest to cast his vote. 
No country can stand still. It must go ahead] or fall 
behind. No voter does his duty who sits back and 
votes with his party year in and year out, from habit 
and prejudice. Even if a man supports a party for 
its general principles, he must be independent enough 
to vote against a bad candidate that it nominates or a 
bad law that it advocates. This independent spirit has 
grown steadily. As you will see, our ballots are now 
arranged so as to recognize and assist it. 

3. The Primary and Nominations 

Platform and Primary. — A party does two important 
things before every election. It makes a party plat- 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 117 

form, stating the principles for which it stands. It 
nominates, that is, names candidates through an elec- 
tion of its own called a primary. These candidates of 
a party are called its "ticket." Now think how this 
affects the election which follows. When you are 
twenty-one and go to cast your first ballot, you can 
vote for anybody you please (as will be explained). 
But since the great mass of voters will vote for the 
party candidates, no one else stands a real chance of 
election and you will simply throw away your vote if 
you cast it for an outsider. So, really, the election has 
been narrowed down, long before it is held, to a choice 
between the party candidates who stand on the party 
platform. 

Importance of the Primary. — You see, therefore, how 
important the primary is. Altogether too many Ameri- 
cans pay scant attention to the primaries, and then 
groan because they have such a poor choice on Election 
Day. The time to make the first choice is at this first 
election day, called the primary, which takes place 
months before. 

How Candidates Are Chosen. — The machinery of nomi- 
nating candidates is very elaborate and has been much 
criticised. Under the older system, at the primary the 
members of the party elected delegates to nominating 
conventions. These conventions named the candidates. 
In recent years "direct primaries" have been introduced 
at which the members of the party name their candidates 
directly at the primary. 

The National Conventions. — The presidential candidates 
are nominated at a great national convention in which 
delegates from all the States sit. It takes place every 



118 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

four years in the summer preceding the election, and 
is one of our most stirring political events. The na- 
tional platform is drawn up and after much excitement 
and many speeches and often prolonged balloting, the 
candidate is named. (The candidate for Vice-President 
is also named but, unfortunately, with but little in- 
terest or attention from the delegates.) 

In many States the principle of the "direct primary" 
has been applied to presidential candidates, the voters 
at the primary not only electing their delegates to the 
national convention, but instructing them for whom to 
vote, 

4. The Campaign 

The Campaign. — A presidential campaign creates great 
excitement. Meetings are held all over the country, 
there are torchlight processions, and the candidates 
address great gatherings. Every voter has ample time 
to read and hear all the arguments, discuss them with 
his family and friends, and decide how he will vote on 
Election Day. The parties have national and State 
committees, which collect large sums to finance the 
campaigns and direct them. 

These funds are now strictly regulated by the national 
government and by many States. Candidates can 
spend only up to a certain limit — candidates for the 
United States Senate only $10,000, and candidates for 
the House of Representatives only $5,000, for instance. 
Corporations are forbidden to contribute. Every con- 
tribution must be made public. This puts all candi- 
dates on an equality, whether there are rich interests 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 119 

back of them or not. The amount of publicity is equal- 
ized, and the danger of money being used corruptly to 
buy votes is greatly lessened. These laws are called 
corrupt practices acts. 

5. Registration and Election 

Registration. — There is one more preliminary to vot- 
ing, and that is registration. In all but a few States 
no citizen can vote unless he has previously gone before 
a Board of Registry and entered his name on the voting 
list of his election district with his address, age, and 
other details. This is to prevent fraud. Vicious politi- 
cal bosses used to win elections by hiring criminals to 
vote in several election districts. These were called 
"repeaters." This trick is impossible when there is a 
registration list, for then either party can investigate 
and arrest any one guilty of fraudulent registration or 
at any rate prevent his voting on Election Day. 

There are usually several registration days. It is 
obviously just as much the duty of every voter to regis- 
ter as to vote, for unless he does the former he cannot 
do the latter. 

In country districts the registration list is usually 
carried over from one year to another, and it is not 
necessary to register unless you have moved into a new 
district. 

Bribery. — Repeating is but one form of fraud at elec- 
tions. There is always a criminal class in every com- 
munity willing to sell its votes. This is called bribery. 
The political boss who bribes and the man who takes the 
bribe are equally guilty of one of the gravest crimes. 



120 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

If convicted they are heavily sentenced. Buying or 
selling a vote is one of the most dishonorable of all 
crimes. It is an act of treachery to one's country which 
is entitled to every voter's honest judgment and it is 
the sale of a voter's freedom and manhood. 

The Australian Ballot. — It is useless for a boss to give 
a bribe unless he can be sure that the vote paid for 
is delivered. For obviously a man debased enough 
to be bribed cannot be relied upon to vote as he 
promises. So long as voting was public the briber 
could be sure of his man. Public voting also made 
possible control of the weak by the powerful. A 
man might lack the courage to vote as he thought he 
should, through fear of losing his job. Therefore the 
secret ballot was invented. Originating in Australia it 
has spread throughout the United States and most 
democracies. It is an ingenious system by which a 
man's vote is entirely his own secret. It leaves no way 
by which any one else can know how he has voted. 
Even though a voter should wish to convince a boss 
that he has voted " right" he cannot do so under the 
Australian ballot. 

Main Features. — There are three main features of the 
Australian ballot: 

1. All ballots of all parties are printed at public ex- 
pense and given out to the voters, one by one, at the 

polls. 

2. The voter marks his ballot, thus indicating his 
vote, alone in a booth or small compartment. 

3. The ballot is then folded so that no one can see 
how it is marked and dropped u r opened in a ballot-box. 



THIS BALLOT SHOULD BR HARKF.D 1M ONE OF TWO WAYB WITH A PrTNCfT. HAVING nUuK LEAD. 

TO VOTJ-: A I-', j: M.,ll i Th'l.'IT. MAKE A CHOSB (xl MMIK WITHIN THE CMllXK AHUVI . u-J l-j HI 71 J, PARTY COLTJMrTB. 

TO VOTE F(iR A PBRSOH HOT ON Till BALLOT, WRITE THE NAME OF SUCH PERSON UNDER THE TITLE OFTHEOmCE I IT THE BLANK COLUMN. 




WEPUsncju* parti 




DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 




INDEPENDENCE 1EAGUE PARTT. 




SOCIALIST PARTT. 




PROHIBITION PARTT. 




SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY. 




CITIZENS' UHIOIT. 



BLABX COLUMN. 



THE VOTER MAT WRITE IK 
THE COLUMN BELOW, UNDER 
THE TITLE OF THE OFFICE, 
THE NAME OF ANY PEB60N 
WHOSE NAME IB NOT PRINT- 
ED upon the ballot, fob 

WHOM H£ DESIRES TO VOTE. 



FRANK E. PASSANNO. 



I For Jortiesof ibeSupmoa Courtli 
I iba gesnd JudlnrJ Davk i, 

I GARRET J. OAHRETSON. 



SAMUEL T. UADDOX. 



HARRINGTON I 



For fc— Iwy of lbl% 



CARL A LUEDECEE. 



SYLVESTER BUTLER. 



WILLIAM A. WALTERa 



For Sulci Eaftocu 



I Aaodiu Iui*» of lis Omrt 

oJAppr*lr, 

IRV1N0 0. VAHH. 



For titodaU Jmtga of lbt> Court 

r* Apjevli, 
FREDERICK COLLIN. 



Fat AjwcUM Judp. of the Cour 

a I Appeilr, 

REUBEN R0B1E LYON 



Sat Awciila Jtufgr el lb* Co 

of Appeal*, 

MORRIS HILLQU1T. 



lor AmocJttr lads' of 'bo Court 
ALFRED L. UANIERRE. 



at AaaoeUte Judfo or ILe Court 

of Appub, 

CHARLES H. CHASE: 




F-r ni-riqif — ril. 



Fa 5uu Ficuwr wi Svn^r, 



Fen taxiila Jodp o( ib« Court 



FREDERICK COLLIN 



HIVING 0. YANN. 



JAMES A ALLEN. 



LOU 13 a BOUDIN. 



OILBERT ELUOTT. 



CITIZENS' NOH-PtRTISIN 
JUDICIUM NOMINATORS. 



OARRET J. OAttRETSON. 



orJuftire of lbs Supmnn Court fc 
lbs Second Judicial Dtrtrtrt, 
GARRET J. GARRETSON. 



For Jorttce of ibe SupnnH Court fe 
tbe Second Judicial Dijinct, 
THOMAS A HOPKINS. 



c*Juslle*ar lb* Bupreto* Court lor 
the Becoad Judicial Dirtrict, 
OARRET 1. GARRETSON. 



SAMUEL T. UADDOX. 



SAMUEL T. UADDOX. 



BAlfUEL T. UADDOX. 



LOUIS & BOUDIN. 



SAMUEL T. MADDOX. 



HARRINGTON PUTNAM. 



IURR1NQTON PCTNAV. 



HARRINGTON PUTNAM. 



EMIL MILLER. 



HARRINGTON PUTNAM. 



For Justice c( Iba Supreme Court U 
lb* Second Judicial Putrid, 
GARRET J. GARRETSON , 



For J miice of lb* Sapm* Court [or 



■ BgpriBH Court fi 

udieiaJ Drrtrtrt, 



SAMUEL T. UADDOX. 



HARRINOTON PUTNAM. 



JOHN JOSEPH KINDRED. 



For Reprerenlali™ to Cemjra* loi tt 

Fourteen lb CoDlTaekul Dirtricl, 

VICTOR HUGO DURAS. 



1 1 L Li am F. EHRET. 



VpHuullit In Conipn (or lb. 
JTlanlh Copfniiniil Dirtrict, 
JOSEPH 11. RALPH. 



For Rj^rrrnmln to Quay— hi 



toanLoCuarnafo 
tMimiul Dtrtrt 



Far Senator for (be Second 

Scuto Dtrtrict, 

DANA WALLACE. 



For S—ator for lb. In»i 



MARTIN KRAEMEB. 



HENRY O JOHNSON, Ja. 



For Member of Arerembrr for U 

Firii Aasmuly Dirtricl. 

HENRY C. JOHNSON, Ja. 



or Member of Aaccvbly lor lb* 
Flirt ArrrmiWy Diitrttt, 
WILLIAM KRUEOER 



For Member of Arormbty for lb 
I'm i Aaembtjr Datrtci, 
NO NOMINATION. 



THE "PARTY-COLUMN" TYPE OF BALLOT USED IN NEW YORK BEFORE 1914 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 121 

How It Works. — Let us suppose that you are twenty- 
one, that you have voted at your prr .ary, that you 
have registered, and that having read and listened and 
discussed you have made up your mind for what can- 
didates you wish to vote. On Election Day you go to 
the polling-place in your election district (usually the 
place of registration). The election officials (represent- 
ing both parties) sit at a table with the list of registered 
voters before them. You give your name, it is checked 
off the list, and you receive the official printed ballot. 
You enter a booth, close the door, and unfold the ballot. 
On it are the names of all the candidates. There are 
various ways of arranging the names, as will be ex- 
plained; but whatever the system you vote by mark- 
ing a cross in a circle or square above a column of 
names or opposite the names. Or you can vote for 
some one not on the printed list, by writing his name 
in a blank space provided for that purpose. Having 
checked up your ballot to make sure you have voted 
as you wished, you fold it up, leave the booth, and see 
it dropped in the ballot-box. 

As an added precaution a ballot is treated as void if 
marked other than as provided. The cross mark must 
be wholly within the allotted space, for instance. Thus 
a man who was bribed would forfeit his vote if he put 
some special mark on his ballot in an effort to prove to 
his boss that he had voted as agreed. 

At the end of the day — the polls are usually open 
from about sunrise to sunset — the officials open the 
ballot-box and count the votes. 

Majority and Plurality. — These words are often used 



122 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

carelessly as if they meant the same thing. Majority 
means more than half of all votes cast. Plurality means 
only more than any other candidate. If only two can- 
didates are voted for, you can see that the man who has 
a plurality must also have a majority. But if three are 
running for office, let us say A, B, and C, and A receives 
4,000 votes, B 3,000, and C 2,000, no candidate has a 
majority (which would be 4,501 votes), but A has a 
plurality of 1,000 votes over B. The general rule in 
America is that only a plurality is needed to elect. In 
this case, therefore, A would be declared elected. 

Voting Machines. — Ingenious machines have been in- 
vented, resembling adding-machines, which save all the 
labor of counting the ballots. The voter turns han- 
dles on the machine instead of marking crosses on a 
ballot. This he does in secret, and the principles of 
voting are quite as with the Australian ballot. These 
machines are in use in a number of States. 

The Massachusetts Ballot. — There are many kinds of 
ballots in the various States. The two principal kinds 
are illustrated in this chapter. Both are New York 
ballots in a State election, but for different years, 1910 
and 1918, and between those years a reform now be- 
coming popular took place in that State. In the first 
ballot you will see that the candidates are arranged by 
tickets and the voter who wishes to vote a straight 
ticket has only to put one cross in the circle above his 
party column. This system favors the lazy, ignorant, 
party vote. The second ballot is of a type that origi- 
nated in the State of Massachusetts. In it the names 
are arranged by offices, not by tickets. To vote it a 



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THE MODIFIED MASSACHUSETTS TYPE OF BALLOT USED IN NEW YORK, 1914 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 123 

voter must mark a cross opposite each candidate. This 
favors independent voting, for every voter has to look 
over the whole ballot, whether he wishes to or not. 

You will note that both ballots use party symbols to 
indicate the party candidates. In Massachusetts the 
ballots used have no such symbols. (Each State has 
its own peculiarities in the form of its ballots.) 

Who Can Vote. — As we saw under State powers and 
laws, each State has the right to say who shall vote, 
barring the one exception of the Fifteenth Amendment, 
designed to insure the negro his vote. In the early 
days of the republic there were many restrictions. Only 
men with property were allowed to vote. Gradually as 
education spread intelligence, the demand for the vote 
came from all classes, and by 1850 America had achieved 
manhood suffrage. To-day the requirements are few: 

1. Citizenship. Only Americans, by birth or natural- 
ization, can vote. (A few States allow aliens who 
have taken out their "first papers," that is, declared 
their intention of becoming citizens, to vote.) 

2. Age. Voters must be twenty-one years old. 

3. Sex. Voting was restricted to men for many 
years, but State after State has now admitted women 
to suffrage. Twenty-nine States had given women presi- 
dential suffrage by 1919, and an amendment to the na- 
tional Constitution passed Congress in that year giving 
them the vote throughout the nation. When ratified by 
the States this will add "womanhood suffrage" to "man- 
hood suffrage." 

4. Residence. It is required that a person live within 
a State a certain period, varying from six months 



124 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

to two years in the different States, before voting. There 
are further restrictions within each State by which a 
voter must have resided within the county and the 
election district a certain length of time. 

5. Education. Massachusetts requires a voter to be 
able to read a section of the State constitution and 
write his own name. A number of other States have 
similar tests, but the general rule permits the illiterate 
to vote. 

6. Poll tax. A very few States require a small poll 
tax (that is, a head tax), one or two dollars, which must 
be paid before a man can vote. 

Certain classes are disfranchised altogether, chiefly 
idiots, paupers, and criminals who have been convicted 
of a felony (that is, a serious crime). Aliens, of course, 
cannot vote, no matter how long they remain in the 
country, since they are not American citizens. (The 
few States allowing aliens who have taken out their first 
papers to vote make a small exception.) 

Citizenship and Naturalization. — It must be understood 
that citizenship does not depend on voting. Boys and 
girls whose parents are Americans or who were born in 
this country of whatever parentage are just as much 
American citizens as any voter. So are American 
women whether permitted to vote or not. They are 
members of our nation; that is what citizenship means. 
As we learned in discussing the difference between civil 
and political rights, they are entitled to every protection 
and privilege save the one right of voting, which is denied 
them by the wisdom of the voters. 

Every foreigner who intends to stay in the United 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 125 

States should become a citizen as soon as possible. 
Until he does so he is not entitled to the full rights of 
an American. This is just as important to his success 
and safety and happiness as that he learn to read and 
write English. 

A foreigner must live here for five years before he can 
become naturalized, and two years before he applies 
for naturalization he must declare his intention to 
become a citizen. "Taking out first papers " this is 
called. Both the declaration of intention and the final 
admission must be made before a judge. When he is 
admitted he takes an oath to support the Constitution 
and he renounces allegiance to any foreign Power. 

Children become citizens when their father is natural- 
ized. But if they have been born in America they are 
citizens anyway. A wife becomes a citizen when her 
husband is naturalized. A woman can become natural- 
ized by the same process as a man. 

Election Dates. — The presidential election comes every 
four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in 
November. The State, county, and township elections 
usually come in off years, in November. So do most 
city elections. New England town elections and most 
village elections come in the spring. As the length of 
the terms of governor and other officers varies greatly with 
the different States, no general rule can be laid down. 
But it is the tendency nowadays to have local elections 
when there is no presidential election; for local elections 
are questions rather of personal uprightness and busi- 
ness ability than of the national issues which control in 
party politics, and it is wiser to hold local elections at a 



126 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

time when party politics is not uppermost in every 
voter's mind. 

In the elections of village, city, and town, communities 
often forget party lines altogether and nominate a joint 
non-partisan ticket. 

The school elections often come at a separate time, 
usually at the annual meeting of the parents and tax- 
payers. Politics should not have and usually does not 
have any place in these elections. 

Some voters are too careless or indifferent to vote for 
lesser officers. This is not to do one's full duty, how- 
ever. A good American should follow the elections 
closely, and vote at every one. As we have seen, the 
local elections and the State elections often affect his 
welfare even more closely than do the national elections. 
The school elections affect the welfare and entire future 
of his children. 

, 6. Direct Government 

Our Representative Government. — All the elections thus 
far described are to choose men to occupy the va- 
rious offices of our government. These men repre- 
sent us for the term of their office and make our laws, 
execute them, and interpret them for us and in our name. 
Under this system the people make the laws, but they 
do it indirectly through these representatives. That is 
why, as we saw before, our government is a republic 
and not a "pure democracy" like the New England 
town meeting. 

Direct Lawmaking. — There has been a movement in a 
number of States in recent years to enable the people 



POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS 127 

to make laws directly when they so desire. Obviously, 
all the voters of a State cannot gather in a meeting and 
discuss and vote. The processes used are called the 
initiative and the referendum. By the initiative a 
group of voters can draft a law, and on securing the sig- 
natures of a certain required number of voters to it can 
have the law submitted to the voters at the next elec- 
tion. The law is printed on the ballot and the voters 
vote "Yes" or "No" on it. If a majority vote "Yes" 
it becomes a law. In this operation the legislature has 
no voice whatever. A number of cities apply the initia- 
tive to city ordinances. 

By the referendum, a group of voters who do not 
approve of a law passed by the legislature can force its 
submission to a sort of popular veto. They prepare a 
petition for a referendum and on securing the signatures 
of a certain required number of voters the law must be 
referred to the people at the next election. It is printed 
on the ballot as in the case of the initiative and becomes 
a law or not, according as there are more votes for or 
against it. 

The referendum is new as applied to laws, but it is a 
very old system of amending our State constitutions. 
After the amendments have been proposed as explained 
in Chapter XIV, they are printed on the ballot and 
voted upon exactly as above. 

The Recall. — This is an additional device for giving 
the people more direct control over their elective offi- 
cers. If a group does not approve of the course of a 
mayor or governor, for instance, and can obtain a 
required number of signatures of voters to a petition, 



128 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

the mayor or governor must submit to a new election 
forthwith and he loses the office if a majority then vote 
against him. The decisions of judges on constitutional 
points, etc., have also been submitted to the recall. 
The recall has not made as much headway as the initia- 
tive and referendum. 

Not a " Pure Democracy." — Even with all these new de- 
vices, however, our government continues to be essen- 
tially representative in character. These processes are 
only supplemental to the work of the legislature, gov- 
ernors, and other officers. The advisability of these 
"direct" methods is one of the moot questions of the 
day. 



CHAPTER XVII 
TAXATION ! 

1. The Taxpayer 

Every One Pays Taxes. — Many people think that they 
pay no taxes because they own no property and never 
pay anything directly to a tax-collector. If they vote 
for some wasteful city improvement they think that 
they will pay nothing toward the expense of it, that the 
cost will fall upon others. In this they fool themselves. 
Every one pays a tax. Every boy and girl has paid a 
tax without knowing it. 

This is because most taxes are shifted; that is, the 
man who pays the tax collects it afterward from some 
one else. Take the best-known of all taxes, the tax on 
real estate, land and houses. The owner of the land 
and house pays the tax, and you might think that if 
you rent a house or a flat or a room that you pay no 
tax at all. To the contrary, many landlords are able 
to add part of the tax, that on the house, into the rent, 
and the tenant, without realizing it, in paying rent is 
paying a real-estate tax. (The tax on the land itself 
cannot usually be shifted and is therefore called a 
"direct" tax. Taxes which can be shifted are called 
" indirect " taxes.) 

More subtle and concealed is the tariff. As we have 
seen, this is both a protection to American industries 
and a tax. The importer of the foreign-made goods 
pays the tax to the national government, and then col- 

129 



130 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

lects it from the retailer, who collects it from you. The 
tariff, you see, is part of his cost, just as much as is the 
price paid the foreign manufacturer. If you ever bought 
a doll or any toy made in Germany you paid such a 
tax. Every time you buy chocolate candy you pay a 
tax— a small item, but there it is, for the chocolate 
came from abroad and paid a tariff on entering the 
country. So it is of any number of common products 
imported from other countries, silk, woollen goods, sugar, 
tin, fur, rubber, and so on. 

2. The National Taxes 

What Is Taxed.— The national government collects its 
own taxes and the States collect theirs, as you might 
guess from what we have learned of our double system 
of government. The national taxes have normally been 
of three kinds: 

1. Customs duties on imports (that is, the tariff). 

2. Excise taxes on whiskey and tobacco. (An excise 
tax is a tax on a home product— an internal revenue tax 
it is called in our laws.) 

3. Taxes on incomes of corporations and individuals. 

In war time when the expenses of the national govern- 
ment are very high, taxes are levied on many other things 
—automobiles, moving pictures, theatre tickets, jewelry, 
and other luxuries. An inheritance tax has also been 
used by the national government, that is a tax on all the 
property of a person who dies. These extraordinary 
taxes are not usual in peace times. 

The national government's power of taxation is 
granted in the broadest terms (Art. I, Sec. 8, Par. 1) 



TAXATION 131 

and it can, if it desires, tax real estate throughout the 
country. It has done so at times, but it now leaves this 
to the States as their chief source of revenue. 

The restrictions are few and not now important. 
The Constitution requires that customs duties and such 
taxes as the tax on tobacco shall be uniform throughout 
the country. (Art. I, Sec. 8, Par. 1.) This is obvious 
justice. The next requirement is that " direct" taxes be 
apportioned among the States according to population. 
(Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 4.) This has an historic impor- 
tance because it delayed the imposition of a national 
income tax for many years. The Supreme Court de- 
cided in 1895, after much argument, that an income 
tax was a "direct" tax and since Congress had not ap- 
portioned the tax according to population, the law was 
declared unconstitutional. (Income being unequally 
distributed among the States, such a tax apportioned 
according to population would not be fair.) The 
Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 
1913, removed this restriction upon income taxes and an 
income tax has now become a large source of national 
revenue. Congress is also prohibited from taxing ex- 
ports. (Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 5.) 

Customs Duties. — These are fixed in a lengthy schedule 
contained in a bill passed by Congress. The rates 
vary widely. Many articles enter duty free. The du- 
ties are collected at the custom-houses in our ports 
upon the arrival of the goods. These duties have long 
been the principal source of the national revenue. 

Excise Taxes. — The tax on liquors ceased with the ar- 
rival of national prohibition. The tax on tobacco will 



132 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

doubtless be continued. These taxes are collected 
by internal revenue collectors. The tax on tobacco is 
collected by means of stamps required to be affixed to 
every package. One of the chief duties of the Secret 
Service has been to run down illicit manufacturers of 
whiskey in remote districts especially in the Southern 
States. These secret makers of liquor are called "moon- 
shiners." 

Income Taxes. — These are levied upon all incomes of 
corporations and upon incomes of individuals exceeding 
a certain minimum exemption which before the Great 
War was $4,000 for married couples and $3,000 for 
unmarried persons. 

The taxes on personal incomes are arranged on a 
sliding scale, increasing rapidly in percentage as the 
income increases. During the Great War very high 
rates were imposed on large incomes. As an illustration 
of how rapidly the scale increased, a calculation of the 
income tax passed in 1917 shows that it imposed the 
following taxes on these incomes: 

AMOUNT 
OF INCOME TAX 

$3,000 $20 

10,000 355 

100,000 16,180 

500,000 192,000 

1,000,000 475,180 

3,000,000 1,800,180 

The percentage ranges from 2 per cent on the last $1,000 
of the $3,000 income to over 60 per cent in the case of 
the $3,000,000 income. The exemption under this law 



TAXATION 133 

was $2,000 for each person. These were, of course, ex- 
traordinarily high and will presumably be reduced as 
soon as the extraordinary expenses of the war cease. 

Bonds. — The revenue from taxes should be sufficient 
to cover all the running expenses of the government in 
ordinary times. A war, however, involves such large 
expenses that it must be financed in part by borrowing 
money. This is done through the issue of government 
bonds, which are simply the government's promise to pay 
a certain sum after a certain number of years together 
with interest in the meantime at a certain rate. The 
Liberty Loans of the Great War were made by the peo- 
ple's loaning money to the government and receiving 
in return Liberty Bonds. The total of bonds owed by a 
government is called its national debt. All the great 
countries of the world had large national debts which 
the Great War increased tremendously. Our national 
debt is relatively small. 

For the construction of a great permanent improve- 
ment which will last for generations, like the Panama 
Canal, bonds are rightly issued. To pay for such an 
improvement by taxes in a few years would increase 
the tax rates hugely. A bond issue spreads this tax 
burden over many years. 

3. State and Local Taxes 

Real Estate. — The chief source of State revenue is the 
tax on real estate. The collection of this is usually 
turned over to the local authorities, town or county. 
Therefore a real-estate tax, assessed and paid locally, 
may include five different taxes, village, school, town or 



134 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

township, county, and State. The officers of each of 
these divisions fix the amount of tax required to meet 
the needs of their division. 

Tax Rate. — The first item to be settled before a tax 
rate is fixed is the value of the property covered by it. 
Assessors do this, lot by lot, house by house. Their 
record is called a tax roll or list. Opportunity is always 
given for protest by the owner against the size of his 
assessment. Certain property, such as schools, libra- 
ries, hospitals, and churches, is usually tax exempt. Let 
us say that the total assessed value of all the real estate 
in a town is fixed at $3,000,000. Now the amounts 
needed are as follows : 

Schools $22,000 

Town (roads, salaries, etc.) 20,000 

Gounty (roads, salaries, etc.) 10,000 

State (highways, salaries, etc.) 8,000 

Total $60,000 

If $3,000,000 of property must yield $60,000 in taxes, 
each dollar must obviously pay 2 cents. The tax rate is 
therefore 2 per cent, or as it is commonly written, $2.00 
—the tax expressed in dollars and cents per every one 
hundred dollars. 

If your house and lot are assessed at $5,000 your 
share of the tax will be $100. 

Collection.— The tax is paid to the tax-collector, who 
turns over the amounts to the town treasurer, who re- 
tains the town's share and pays over what is due to 
the treasurers of the county and the State. The col- 
lector has a right to sell property in order to collect 
taxes. But this right is very carefully limited. 



TAXATION 135 

Personal-Property Tax.— This used to be very generally 
collected on every sort of property, household furniture, 
stocks, bonds, and so on. It is still carried on the 
books of most tax districts, but in practice is collected 
only from wealthy householders and large owners of 
stocks and bonds. It is an unsatisfactory tax, for it is 
very difficult to assess fairly (since personal property is 
easily concealed), and it is falling into disuse. 

Inheritance Tax— This has become a very common 
form of State tax. As noted before, the national 
government has resorted to it in time of war, but or- 
dinarily it has shown a disposition to leave this source 
entirely to the States. The tax is a fixed percentage 
of all property owned by a person at his death. It is 
usually graduated in two respects, the nearness of kin- 
ship of the relatives inheriting and the size of the in- 
heritance. Thus the California statute imposes these 
tax rates when the property goes to husband, wife, 
parents, grandparents, children, or grandchildren: 

PERCENTAGE AMOUNT 

OF TAX °F ESTATE 

I Up to $25,000 

2 $25,000 to 50,000 

4 [ [ \[ 50,000 to 100,000 

7 ' [ 100,000 to 200,000 

10./..!! 200,000 to 500,000 

12! .... ! 500,000 to 1,000,000 

15. ./'.' ! Above 1,000,000 

But if the property goes to brothers and sisters the 
rates range from 3 per cent to 25 per cent; if to uncles 
and aunts 4 to 30 per cent ; and to others 5 to 30 per cent, 
the latter beginning with $500,000. s 



136 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

These rates are higher than most States. But the 
tendency to tax large inheritances heavily is growing. 

Income Tax. — Some States impose taxes on personal 
incomes, thus subjecting them to a double tax since 
the national government has also taken to taxing in- 
comes. 

Corporation Tax.— Many States tax the corporations 
doing business within them. It is levied in various ways, 
sometimes on the capital stock, sometimes on the in- 
come. In this latter form it duplicates the national tax 
on corporation incomes. 

Licenses and Fees. — These are small taxes collected by 
a government usually in connection with some act per- 
formed by the government. The fee for a dog license 
pays for the pound keeper and eliminates stray dogs. 
A marriage license covers the expense of keeping mar- 
riage records. High license fees for saloons used to pay 
a large revenue in some States, one of the objects being 
to reduce the number of saloons. Fees must also be 
paid for having a deed or other document recorded in 
the county records. 

Franchise Taxes. — A franchise is a privilege given to a 
person or corporation to use public property, for instance, 
to a street car company to build tracks and run cars in 
a public street. Some cities tax such franchises heavily. 
Chicago, for example, receives more than $1,500,000 a 
year by taxing the earnings of its street railways. 

Assessments. — The cost of local improvements, sew- 
ers, new streets, etc., is usually assessed against the 
near-by property owners in proportion to the special 
benefit which it is calculated will result to them. These 



TAXATION 



137 



payments are called special assessments. They are not 
like other taxes because they are not equally applied to 
all property owners but are collected from the few espe- 
cially benefited. 

Bonds.— All our local governments issue bonds to pay 
for permanent improvements. The purpose is exactly 
the sa meas in the case of national bond issues. If a 
schoolhouse is built costing $100,000, it is not con- 
sidered right that taxes should be jumped to pay such 
a huge sum in the year or two of its construction. 
Therefore the school district issues its bonds to borrow 
the money. The same is true of sewers, water-works, 
and all lasting improvements. Our great cities have 
huge debts outstanding as a result. 

It is so simple to issue bonds that communities are 
often tempted to pay for temporary improvements in 
this fashion. This is unsound and puts a heavy burden 
on later generations. For interest has to be paid reg- 
ularly. The principal of every bond must be paid off 
when due. For this purpose sinking funds must be 
established, and this means that everybody must be taxed 
not only enough to pay the current interest but also 
enough in addition to put by a sum each year which 
will produce a total equal to the principal when the bond 
falls due. Issuing bonds is mortgaging future genera- 
tions, and a community should be very careful to do it 
only for lasting improvements of which future taxpayers 

will share the benefit. 
Eminent Domain.— Suppose a new railroad is needed or 

a new street. It must run across the private property 

of a number of owners. Suppose these owners do not 



138 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

wish to sell — even though the public benefit is clear. 
Can the nation, State, or town, or village take this private 
property for this public purpose? It can; and the right 
is called the right of eminent domain. The only limita- 
tions are that the public need shall be established by an 
impartial body and that the owner shall be paid the 
value of his land. The legal proceedings by which 
these facts are determined are called condemnation pro- 
ceedings. The owner is protected from the arbitrary 
taking of his property without proper compensation by 
the Fifth Amendment to the national Constitution. 
(See its last clause.) 



CHAPTER XVIII 
COURTS AND TRIALS 

1. The Two Kinds of Laws 

Civil Laws. — If a gang of hoodlums, old enough to know 
better, set fire to a barn for the fun of seeing a blaze, 
they break two different kinds of laws and commit two 
different kinds of wrongs. They damage the owner of 
the barn, for they destroy it and he is that much poorer. 
He therefore has the right to sue them for damages in 
what is called a "civil" suit. (To sue is simply to seek 
justice in a court, and a suit is the process of doing this.) 
This law— that we must not destroy another's property 
and that if we do he can go to court and compel us to pay 
for the damage done— is called a "civil" law. You 
see that this wrong is done to an individual. 

Criminal Laws. — But a wrong has also been done to 
the people of the State in which the barn is located. 
The whole community is imperilled and injured by hav- 
ing such hoodlums about. Nobody's barn is safe. 
Therefore the law of the State says that the act of setting 
fire to a barn is a crime to be punished by imprisonment. 
The hoodlums have therefore broken a "criminal" law 
as well as a "civil " law. 

Points of Difference. — This distinction is important and 
runs throughout the law. In a civil suit, the plaintiff 
(who sues) and the defendant (who is sued) are both 
individuals. In a criminal suit the people, styled "The 

13d 



140 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

People of the State of New York," for instance, are the 
plaintiff, and the accused person is the defendant. If 
the crime is against the nation, counterfeiting, for in- 
stance, "The People of the United States" are the plain- 
tiff. In a civil suit, each side hires his own lawyer and 
pays his own expenses. In a criminal suit, the "People 
of the State" are represented by the District Attorney, 
a public officer elected by the county. The defendant 
hires his own counsel. In a civil suit the object is to 
recover damages or in some cases prevent damage. In 
a criminal suit the object is to convict the defendant of 
a crime and have him fined or imprisoned. (A fine is a 
money payment to the State. It is imposed as a punish- 
ment and to prevent a repetition of the act and not to 
recompense anybody.) 

2. A Criminal Trial 

The Crime. — Let us suppose that a murder has been 
committed in your village. A respected storekeeper 
going home on Saturday night with his cash from the till 
has been struck on the head, killed, and robbed. His 
body is found at midnight by a policeman. The mur- 
derer has vanished. Let us now see what legal steps 
follow, remembering that all these matters are left to 
the individual States to decide and that the details vary 
with every State. 

The Coroner's Inquest. — The first public inquiry is made 
by the coroner, an officer of the county whose busi- 
ness it is to inquire into every mysterious death. He 
summons six or twelve men to act as a coroner's jury 
and holds what is called a " Coroner's Inquest." Wit- 



COURTS AND TRIALS 141 

nesses are called and the jury report what they think 
has been the cause of death — "from a blow struck by a 
person unknown/' for instance. This is usually a brief 
and unimportant process. 

The Arrest. — Meantime the district attorney of the 
county and the county detectives as well as the local 
police have been hard at work. Within a few days a 
man brings suspicion on himself through the lavish 
spending of money and it is found that he lives not far 
from the scene of the crime. The police can arrest at 
once on reasonable suspicion and they do arrest if there 
is any fear that the suspect will escape. (Can a private 
citizen make an arrest? Only if a crime is actually 
committed in his presence.) Here the district attorney 
goes privately to a judge and secures a warrant (that 
is an order) for the man's arrest. The police arrest the 
man and lock him up. 

If this happens in a large city the prisoner is at once 
photographed and measured by the Bertillon system 
and thus, if he has ever committed a crime before, he is 
at once identified by his measurements and his old 
record produced even though it may have been years 
before and he is now living under an alias, that is, an 
assumed name. 

A Prisoner's Rights. — Here in jail the law at once be- 
gins to protect the prisoner from injustice. It provides 
that' a prisoner when questioned must be warned that 
everything he says may be used against him; and that 
if this warning is not given or if force or duress (that is, 
threats or terrorism amounting to force) is used, nothing 
that the prisoner says can be used against him. 



142 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

As soon as he is arrested a prisoner is entitled to the 
advice of counsel. Many other safeguards will appear 
later. They are all based on the broad idea that every 
man is to be presumed innocent until he is proven 
guilty. That is something we should all remember and 
apply, for it holds true in every-day life just as much 
as in a trial in court. It is one of the noblest principles 
of that splendid body of law which we have inherited 
from England. The chance is a long one that any 
honest, well-meaning American will ever be falsely 
accused and arrested. But if he is, his very life may 
depend upon our wise and benign system of law which 
protects the innocent just as zealously as it seeks out 

the guilty. 

Habeas Corpus.— These Latin words mean "Have the 
body." It is a writ, that is, an order, issued by a judge 
requiring the officers of a jail to bring a prisoner before 
him. "Have the body brought before the court" is the 
full idea. The purpose is to prevent unlawful arrest 
and imprisonment. If a prisoner does not know why he 
was arrested or whether he is legally detained, he can 
find out by obtaining this writ. The court must inves- 
tigate and decide whether the prisoner is legally held. 
If illegally held he sets him free. This is an old Eng- 
lish writ of the greatest importance to our liberties. 

The national Constitution protects it in Article I, 
Section 9, Paragraph 2. Yet there is also a clear 
recognition that in time of war private rights must 
give way to public safety. Under these conditions 
Congress can suspend the right to the writ and permit 
imprisonment without the necessity of explaining why. 



COURTS AND TRIALS 143 

Arraignment. — The prisoner is next brought into court 
before a justice of the peace (in a city before a police 
magistrate) and a brief hearing is given to the evidence. 
If the crime charged were a minor one (disorderly con- 
duct or a violation of a speed law) the justice of the peace 
could go ahead and try the case and find the defendant 
guilty or not guilty. But the charge being a grave 
crime, he can only decide whether the prisoner shall or 
shall not be "held for the grand jury," that is, kept in 
jail until the grand jury can hear the evidence. If there 
is no evidence he sets the prisoner free. 

Bail. — In the case of ordinary crimes, a prisoner can 
be released on bail while awaiting further action. That 
is, his friends who own property can sign a bond in an 
amount fixed by the court, agreeing to produce the de- 
fendant in court when he is wanted or forfeit the sum 
named. (A defendant is said to "jump his bail" if he 
runs away.) Murder is such a grave charge that a 
prisoner accused of it is not admitted to bail. 

The Grand Jury. — This is the first part of our jury 
system. It is composed of not less than twelve or more 
than twenty-three citizens. The district attorney brings 
the State's witnesses before this body and presents the 
case to them. The grand jury sits in secret and hears 
only the side of the prosecution. The defendant's case 
is not heard. If at least twelve of the grand jury believe 
that the prisoner ought to be tried for the murder, the 
district attorney draws up an indictment making the 
charge of murder against the prisoner and the foreman 
writes across the back of the indictment the words "A 
true bill." 



144 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

This is not at all a trial of the defendant's guilt or 
innocence, you see. After indictment, as before, the de- 
fendant is still "presumed to be innocent." The 
grand jury has simply decided that enough evidence 
exists to require the prisoner's trial. It is another pro- 
tection of the innocent, the theory being that no one 
man, not even a public official like the district attorney, 
should be able to make a citizen stand trial. 

The Plea. — The defendant is now brought before the 
court to "plead." The indictment is read to him and he 
is asked whether he is "Guilty or not guilty." If he 
pleads "Guilty" that is the end, and the court proceeds 
to sentence him without trial. 

The Trial. — If he pleads "Not guilty" the trial may not 
take place for months since the lawyers have much 
work to do preparing their cases. To compel wit- 
nesses to attend, a "subpoena" for each is issued by 
the court commanding him to appear. This is "served 
upon" (that is, handed to) the witness by the lawyer 
who wishes him present. A subpoena must always 
be obeyed. It is a serious offense to disregard any 
order of a court. 

On the day fixed by the judge the defendant is brought 
into court and the trial begins. The whole proceed- 
ings must be public that they may be watched and 
no star-chamber action take place. Also the defendant 
must be present throughout. He sits with his counsel 
facing judge, witness, and jury. 

The Trial Jury. — This is the second and more impor- 
tant part of our jury system. It is sometimes called 
the "petit jury," which means "small jury" to distin- 



COURTS AND TRIALS 145 

guish it from the grand jury. It contains twelve mem- 
bers. 

The jury is chosen from " talesmen," that is, citizens 
summoned to court as possible jurymen. Their names 
are drawn by lot so as to lessen the chance of bribery or 
bias and they are questioned one by one as called by 
the lawyers and the court. Friends of the defen- 
dant or of the lawyers, or any one who might have 
difficulty in giving a fair decision, are ruled out by 
the court. Each side has also a limited number of 
" challenges"; that is, each side has the right to exclude 
a certain number of talesmen without any cause given, 
simply because the lawyer does not believe they would 
be favorable to his side. 

The Evidence. — The district attorney opens the case 
with a speech in which he states what he proposes to 
prove. He then calls the State's witnesses one by one. 
Each witness is seated in the witness-chair, a high seat 
between the judge and the jury. A witness is said to 
"take the stand" when he enters the witness-chair. He 
is sworn "to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth." If you are ever called as a witness, 
that must be your sole effort. Whether you have 
friends in the trial or are interested yourself makes no 
difference. Any one who tells anything but the truth 
commits perjury, the crime of false swearing, a very 
serious offense. 

Now, a witness gives his evidence in court in only one 
way and according to a great many very technical rules, 
called the rules of evidence. For the first point, a 
witness is not allowed to volunteer anything. He must 



146 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

answer only the questions put to him. This often seems 
a slow and silly method to outsiders. But the reason is 
clear. Only by this method is it possible to keep the 
witness from blurting out prejudices, guesses, remote 
facts that the jury ought not to pay any attention to 
and had best not hear. Only questions that call for 
proper evidence are allowed. Others are ruled out. 

Long experience has shown that certain kinds of 
testimony can be believed and certain kinds cannot. 
The best illustration is hearsay, which the rules of evi- 
dence exclude (save in exceptional cases). Hearsay is 
second-hand evidence; that is, the witness tries to 
tell not what he, himself, saw or heard but what some- 
body else saw and related to him. Gossip is typical 
hearsay and everybody knows how unreliable it is. A 
story always grows as it is handed on. So the law 
insists that no hearsay should be admitted, that the 
person who saw or heard must be produced in court. 
The basic objection to hearsay, you see, is that it is not 
sworn to, for the man who started the story is not in 

court. 

There are many other rules of evidence which must 
be obeyed. The lawyers must follow them in their 
questions; and if a witness tries to evade them his 
answers are stricken out. 

Direct and Cross Examination. — The district attorney 
first puts on the stand the policeman who found the 
body and asks questions that bring out what the police- 
man saw and did on that night. This is called the 
direct examination. Counsel for the defendant then 
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COURTS AND TRIALS 147 

question him about what he has told and try to bring out 
facts more favorable to his client. Or if a witness 
is not telling the truth he can often be tripped into a 
contradiction and thus shown up as a liar. 

Let us say that no witness of the crime can be pro- 
duced. There is then no "direct" evidence. But the 
"circumstantial" evidence may be strong. That is, a 
weapon stained with blood and fitted to produce the 
wound that caused the death of the victim is found on 
the defendant. Also a document that was in the vic- 
tim's pocket is found on the defendant. Such evidence 
is often just as damning as direct evidence. 

The Defense.— After all the witnesses for the State 
have testified and been cross-examined, the prosecution 
rests. The defense opens with a speech by the de- 
fendant's lawyer and the defendant's witnesses are called 
in turn exactly as the State's were. The district at- 
torney can cross-examine these witnesses just as the de- 
fendant's counsel could cross-examine the State's wit- 
nesses. 

One of the commonest defenses is an alibi, that is, 
evidence that the defendant was somewhere else than 
the place of the crime at the time it was committed. 
The defendant's neighbor takes the stand and swears 
that he saw him at his house around ten o'clock, the 
hour of the murder. 

Can the defendant testify in his own behalf? He 
has the right, but he seldom does. Even an innocent 
man is apt to become confused with so much at stake 
and therefore the law provides that no defendant can 
be compelled to testify against himself in any criminal 



148 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

case. This is another protection that the law throws 
about the defendant. 

The Summing Up. — Both sides now sum up, the lawyer 
for the defense first, the district attorney last. These 
speeches are addressed to the jury and are often very 
eloquent pleas. 

The Judge's Charge. — Finally the judge "charges" the 
jury, that is, tells them what the law of the case is. Here 
is an interesting and important distinction. The judge 
lays down the law; the jury decide every question of 
fact. The judge is not even permitted to express an 
opinion on a question of fact. Let us take an illustration : 
The judge in his charge explains the different degrees of 
murder. These are carefully planned so as to inflict a 
punishment proportionate to the crime. Thus for 
murder in the first degree (punishable by death) there 
must be not only an intent to kill but premeditation, 
that is, some planning and reflection. Killing in a sud- 
den burst of anger without forethought is not considered 
as grave a crime as killing in cold blood. It is punish- 
able by life imprisonment, not death. This is part of 
the law which the judge must set forth and which the 
jury must accept. 

On the other hand, it is for the jury to decide whether 
the neighbor is telling the truth or is possibly mistaken — 
whether the alibi is true or false. On this decision may 
depend the verdict and it is wholly a question of fact 
which the jury have the exclusive right to decide. 

How sure must the jury be? This is again a matter 
of law which the court explains. In order to convict 
a defendant of any crime, the jury must be convinced 



COURTS AND TRIALS 149 

of his guilt " beyond a reasonable doubt." That is a 
severe requirement. It is made so in order to protect 
the innocent. In civil cases, where only money is at 
stake and not liberty or life, a jury decides by the " weight 
of evidence" — that is, with whichever side makes out 
the stronger case. But it is not enough for the district 
attorney to have the "weight of evidence" on his side. 
He must prove the State's case beyond a reasonable 
doubt. 

The Verdict. — The jury is now locked up in a jury 
room to debate the evidence and seek to agree on a 
verdict. All twelve jurors must agree in order to bring 
in a verdict. Sometimes they are kept out for a day 
or more if there is any chance of agreement. One stub- 
born juror may prevent a verdict and his fellow jurymen 
take turns in trying to change his mind. If they are 
utterly unable to agree, the foreman so announces and 
the court dismisses the jury and the whole trial goes for 
nought. This is called a "hung jury." The district 
attorney can begin all over again with a new jury, but 
his chances of success in a second trial are not good. 

In a few States the old rule has been modified and 
eleven or even seven jurors may bring in a verdict. 
This change prevents "hung juries," but its justice has 
yet to be approved generally. 

In our case let us assume that the jury has been so 
impressed by the evidence of the neighbor that it feels 
grave doubts of the defendant's guilt even though the 
circumstantial evidence is strong. It therefore brings 
in a verdict of "Not guilty." The defendant is freed 
at once and he is free for all time as he can never be 



150 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

tried again for the same crime, once a verdict of "Not 
guilty" has been reached. 

Appeal. — Had he been found guilty, his lawyer could 
have appealed to a higher court of the State (usually 
called the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals) and 
obtained a review of the law points involved. Generally 
speaking, questions of fact cannot be raised on appeal. 

Constitutional Points. — It is on such an appeal that 
constitutional questions often arise. The safeguards 
which surround every defendant in an American trial 
for crime should be observed by the trial judge; but 
if he fails to do his duty, their protection can still be 
obtained on appeal and the whole conviction set aside. 
These are the main points : 

1. There must be an indictment by a grand jury in 
the case of any felony (that is, a serious crime). 

2. No person shall be tried again for the same crime 
after acquittal. 

3. No person shall be compelled to be a witness against 
himself. 

4. A defendant is entitled to a speedy and public 
trial by an impartial jury. 

5. He must be informed of the nature of the accusa- 
tion, be confronted by the witnesses against him, have 
the right to have witnesses summoned in his behalf, 
and have the assistance of counsel. 

6. No ex-post-facto law shall be passed. That is, a 
law making an act done in the past a crime. "After 
the fact" the words mean. 

The first five of these you will find in the Fifth and 
Sixth Amendments to the national Constitution, the 
sixth in Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 3. There are 



COURTS AND TRIALS 151 

similar rules in all the State constitutions. They rep- 
resent the results of the long fight for fair trials won 
by Englishmen before our republic was founded. They 
are part of that English freedom from which our Ameri- 
can freedom was developed. 

Sentence and Punishment. — The court sentences a con- 
victed defendant after taking into view all the facts of 
his past life. Sometimes, in the case of first offenses 
for lesser crimes a judge suspends sentence altogether. 
For almost all crimes the term of imprisonment is fixed 
by the law within certain limits — from five to ten years, 
for instance. The judge decides whether the full term 
shall be imposed or less. 

The view is now gaining ground that we should make 
more effort to reform our criminals. The old tortures 
and cruel punishments have long been abolished. No 
punishment is for revenge in our modern view. The 
object is to restrain the criminal from repeating his crime 
and also by the example to prevent others from com- 
mitting the same crime. 

Many States are now introducing " indeterminate 
sentences" as one aid to reform. This system allows 
great chance for individual treatment. A minimum 
term is fixed by law; beyond that it depends on how the 
prisoner behaves in prison; and after he is released he is 
"on parole" for a period, this meaning that if he does 
not behave as he promises he goes back to prison to 
serve out his term. 

Children's Courts. — As part of this new wisdom in deal- 
ing with criminals has come the children's court. One 
of the worst features of the old system was that it 
threw all prisoners together, old and young, first of- 



152 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

fenders and hardened yeggmen. The result was that 
our jails trained all prisoners in corruption. 

The children's court takes all cases of alleged crime 
up to sixteen or seventeen or even eighteen in some 
States. It is not run at all like the court we have 
described. The theory of it is that boys or girls of this 
age are not real criminals at heart no matter what 
they have done and that every effort should be made 
to appeal to their good side and turn them into the 
right road again. 

The judge hears the case without any jury and the 
punishment is entirely in his hands. He is more like a 
just father than a court. Imprisonment is used as a 
last resort; and then only a sentence to a reform school, 
until twenty-one, is given. Most children are released 
on parole in charge of a man or woman known as a pro- 
bation officer. This officer goes to their homes and to 
their schools and watches over them. At regular inter- 
vals they report to the judge. 

3. Civil Trials 

General Description. — Civil trials resemble criminal 
trials with the differences noted before. There is no 
district attorney, each side having its own lawyer. 
Either side can demand a jury if the case involves a 
considerable sum of money. But many cases are left 
to the judge to decide, facts as well as law. The same 
rules of evidence apply and lawyers for plaintiff and de- 
fendant present their cases in much the same order. 

Pleadings. — There being no crime charged, there is 
no indictment. There are instead pleadings between 



COURTS AND TRIALS 153 

the two parties. The plaintiff serves a summons and 
also a complaint on the defendant, stating on what facts 
he makes his claim and how large damages he claims. 
The defendant serves an answer in which he states his 
defense. 

Judgment. — If the plaintiff wins, he gets a judgment 
ordering the defendant to pay him a certain sum of 
money. This judgment the court enforces through the 
sheriff who can seize property of the defendant and sell 
it if necessary to pay the judgment. In certain cases, 
also, a court issues an injunction, that is, an order direct- 
ing the defendant to do something else than pay money 
by way of reparation or to refrain from doing something 
that is injuring or will injure the plaintiff. This is 
called "equity" relief as distinct from "law" relief 
which gives only money damages. 

A century ago, a defendant who would not or could not 
pay a judgment was thrown into jail, to remain indefi- 
nitely. This was harsh and unjust and very stupid, for 
while in jail no debtor could possibly earn money to 
pay what he owed. Imprisonment for debt has now 
been abolished everywhere. You can read in Dickens's 
novel, "Little Dorrit," the tragedy and injustice of this 
old-time practice. Amy Dorrit was born and brought 
up in a London prison where her father was confined 
for debt. This novel had much to do with changing 
the law. 

4. Common and Statute Law 

Statute Law. — You may have seen the huge volumes 
of laws which legislatures of every State have passed. 



154 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

One or two volumes are passed every year. These are 
called the statute law, which means simply law enacted 
by a legislature. 

Common Law. — We have also a large and most im- 
portant body of law which was never thus enacted by 
any legislature. It is called common law, which means 
that it originated as common usage. That is the way 
all English law began, by the courts enforcing the 
general customs of honest business and orderly life. 
Gradually general rules developed which all the judges 
followed. It is of ancient origin and was taken over 
in full by our colonies when they split from England. 
This law is contained in the decisions of judges, and it is 
still growing as our courts interpret old laws to meet 
new conditions. 

This system makes our laws flexible, more easily bent 
to meet new necessities. It also makes for justice, since 
so many of our laws are the slow growth of many cen- 
turies of custom and experience rather than the opinions 
of any one group of men. 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 

The Critical Period. — We are apt to think that the 
Revolution made the United States, and that after the 
dark days of Valley Forge and the other heroic hours of 
the War of Independence, all was plain sailing. Noth- 
ing could be further from the fact. The Revolution 
won independence for the colonies and made possible 
a united America. But for six long years, from 1783 to 
1789, it was touch and go whether such a union would 
be achieved or whether the States would break apart 
into separate and weak nations to drift into disorder 
and probable absorption by some foreign power. 1 

Articles of Confederation. — The trouble lay with the 
Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777 and made 
effective in 1781, under which the States constituted not 
a firmly united nation but little more than a league. 
"A firm league of friendship" was the phrase used in 
the Articles. The Congress which it created, like the 
Continental Congress which it succeeded, had neither 
the power to raise an army nor the power to raise 
money by taxation. It could order the States to furnish 
troops and money, but it could not enforce its orders. 

With the war over and the peace treaty signed in 
1783 the States went from bad to worse. The jealousy 

1 Note. — You will find an absorbing narrative of these years in John 
Fiske's "Critical Period of American History." 

155 



156 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

of the several States, which had made a league the strong- 
est union acceptable in 1777, led to quarrels between 
them. Congress, the only central authority created, 
there being neither executive nor judges to carry out the 
laws, had the authority to raise money by borrowing, 
but it had exhausted its credit and could not even find 
money to pay the soldiers who had fought and won the 
war. It was mobbed by a crowd of drunken soldiers in 
Philadelphia in 1783 and compelled to flee to Princeton, 
New Jersey. Commerce among the States was hampered 
by customs duties which as separate States they had the 
right to impose as against one another. New York 
taxed firewood from Connecticut and farm produce from 
New Jersey. 

Convention of 1787. — Clear-headed men throughout the 
Confederation realized the gathering danger and set 
about meeting it. Fortunately the colonies possessed 
a group of political thinkers as able as any the world has 
ever produced. We owe an inestimable gratitude to the 
men who fought the war of independence. We owe not 
less gratitude to these extraordinary men who, upon the 
freedom thus won, erected the permanent Structure of 
our government without which freedom must have 
perished. 

At the call of Congress a convention met in Philadel- 
phia in May, 1787, for the purpose of meeting these 
known and growing evils. Twelve States, all except 
Rhode Island, responded to the call and sent delegates, 
fifty-five in all. These men assembled in Independence 
Hall on May 25 and there, in the same room in which 
the Declaration of Independence had been signed and 



THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 157 

issued to the world eleven years before, began their 
great labor. 

Four of the delegates were men of genius, Washington, 
Hamilton, Madison, Franklin. Washington was unani- 
mously chosen president of the convention and through- 
out the four long months of debate and dispute and com- 
promise his nobility of character and unselfish devotion 
to the cause of union again and again saved the conven- 
tion from break-up. At the very outset he sounded the 
lofty note which was to animate the convention. A del- 
egate had advocated half-way measures of amendment 
as likely to be more popular. To this Washington re- 
plied : 

"It is too probable that no plan we propose will be 
adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be 
sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we 
ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our 
work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and 
the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God." 

Franklin was eighty-one years of age, the oldest 
member of the convention. He had returned from his 
marvellously successful diplomatic labors in Paris in 
behalf of the Confederation and brought a rare tact and 
practical wisdom to the convention. 

Hamilton and Madison were among the younger men, 
being thirty and thirty-six respectively. Hamilton was 
the more brilliant of the two and the more eloquent. 
But it was Madison whose profound learning and bal- 
anced mind contributed most to the Constitution that 
was created, and he has rightly been termed the "Father 
of the Constitution. " 



158 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

After the Constitution was completed by the con- 
vention and while its adoption by the States was still 
in doubt, these two, Hamilton and Madison (aided by 
John Jay), wrote " The ^Federalist," a series of articles 
expounding the Constitution and urging its adoption. 
This volume ranks with the greatest works on political 
theory of all time. 

There were many other able men in the convention, all 
of whom contributed something to the final result. 
The sessions were held in secret so that delegates could 
be free to speak their minds and the disputes that arose 
could be settled in the privacy of the convention. Seri- 
ous disagreements existed; interests of different sec- 
tions clashed gravely. It was only by infinite patience 
and generous compromise that agreement was finally 
reached — not a compromise of those principles of right 
and wrong which no man should ever compromise, but 
compromise of those personal opinions and selfish in- 
terests which a man should always stand ready to sacri- 
fice to the public good. 

Sources of the Constitution. — In praising the masterly 
achievement of the great men of 1787, we must not mis- 
take the nature of their labor and conceive that they in- 
vented a wholly new and untried system of government. 
Their achievement would have been far from masterly 
and would probably have lasted only a brief period if 
they had attempted any such experiment. What they 
did was to draw on all the experience and wisdom of the 
past (especially the experience of the thirteen States as 
recorded in their constitutions and the example of Eng- 
land), taking those elements which had worked well, 



THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 159 

adapt them to the needs of the new nation, invent new 
devices where it seemed necessary, and build therefrom 
a new and beautifully proportioned structure. In one 
sense, nothing was new in the Constitution; in another 
sense, it was wholly new. 

The Great Compromise.— The chief dispute in the con- 
vention came between the small and the large States. 
The former naturally feared that if they entered a na- 
tion they would be outvoted and overwhelmed. In the 
Congress of the Confederation each State had one vote 
and a continuation of this system was put forward by 
the delegates from New Jersey, therefore known as the 
New Jersey plan. Connecticut, Delaware, and Mary- 
land sided with this view. 

The Virginia plan, supported chiefly by Massachu- 
setts, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, was largely 
the work of Madison, and it provided for a legislature 
of two houses, in both of which representation was to 
be according to population. This would have given the 
large States complete control. 

Debate upon these two plans was prolonged and bitter 
and it was not until the delegates from Connecticut put 
forward a plan known as "the Connecticut compromise" 
that any hope of agreement appeared. In this scheme, 
the House of Representatives was to represent the peo- 
ple in proportion to population; the Senate was to 
represent the States, large and small having an equal 
representation. "Yes," said Franklin, "when a joiner 
wishes to fit two boards, he sometimes pares off a bit 
from both." This compromise, as you will recognize, 
was the system adopted in the Constitution. So im- 



160 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

portant did the smaller States consider their equal 
representation in the Senate that change of this provi- 
sion is prohibited save by consent of the State. (Art. 
V.) It is the only part of the Constitution requiring 
unanimous consent of the States for its alteration. 

After this difficult problem was settled and the small 
States placated, the Virginia plan was largely adopted 
in respect to other matters. The central government 
received ample authority to tax, to raise armies, to con- 
trol commerce between States, received indeed all 
those powers the lack of which brought the Confedera- 
tion to the verge of disaster. 

Slavery. — Opinion against slavery had not crystallized 
by 1787, and while the Northern States sought to pro- 
hibit the importation of slaves, the wish of the South- 
ern States in part prevailed. The slave population was 
not large at this time and its evils and peril to the nation 
were not clearly foreseen. The main disputes relating 
to slavery were compromised. The one was whether 
slaves should be counted in figuring the representatives 
of a State in Congress and also in apportioning taxes. 
This was compromised by agreeing that for both pur- 
poses five slaves should count as three individuals. 
(Art. I, Sec. 2, Par. 3.) The question of the slave 
trade was compromised by providing that it should not 
be ended prior to 1808, that was for twenty years. 
(Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 1.) 

The Presidency. — The President was modelled to some 
extent on the British King, carefully modified to avoid 
any possibility of the tyranny which the colonists knew 
to their sorrow in George III. His powers were strictly 



THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 161 

limited; he was to be elected for a fixed term of four 
years. Now, at this time the British Government was 
rapidly moving away from its old monarchical character 
through the development of the prime minister, the 
head of the British Cabinet. Nominally appointed by 
the King but really the leader of the majority in the 
House of Commons, this officer was fast becoming the 
true executive power of the British Government. But 
this fact was not realized at the time our Constitution 
was made. Therefore the Convention of 1787 paid no 
attention to the example of the prime minister in creat- 
ing our President. Had it copied the prime minister 
instead of the King our President would be elected by 
the House of Representatives and would hold office not 
for a fixed term but only so long as a majority of the 
House supported him. This is called the "responsible 
cabinet" system and is the way England is governed 
to-day. The point is important because it marks a 
vital difference between our government and the 

English system. 

The convention feared to trust the people to select a 
President and therefore invented the electoral college, 
already referred to. It was one of the more novel 
features of the Constitution; it was praised by every 
one and opposed by none; and it failed completely, be- 
ing overridden by the popular desire for direct election 

by the year 1800. 

The Supreme Achievement.— The supreme creation of 
the convention was the relation of the Constitution to 
the government. It was made the "supreme law of 
the land" (Art. VI, Sec. 2), and a Supreme Court was 



162 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

created to interpret it. (Art. Ill, Sec. 1 and Sec. 2.) 
It was made binding not only upon the States and in- 
dividuals, but upon the national government, executive, 
legislative, and judicial departments alike. Effective 
force was given to its binding character through the 
power of the Supreme Court to declare acts of Con- 
gress which violated the Constitution unconstitutional. 
This was undoubtedly the plan of the convention and 
through the wisdom and courage of Chief Justice Mar- 
shall of the Supreme Court it speedily became the ac- 
cepted interpretation. 

"The American Constitution," says James Bryce in 
"The American Commonwealth/ ' "is the living voice 
of the people." That is the accurate truth. The peo- 
ple speak through the Constitution; and the Constitu- 
tion, by its own provisions, is supreme above every 
other power in the country. 

This was a magnificent conception and a wholly 
novel one. No other country in the world has a like 
system. It was the crowning achievement of a great 
labor. 

Adoption of Constitution. — Some one has remarked that 
our Constitution can be read through in twenty-three 
minutes. It is amazingly brief for the vast ground 
it covers and the enormous structure it rears. Yet it 
took four months of the hardest labor to build it and 
its completion marked perhaps the mightiest creation 
ever accomplished by any single group of men. There 
was deep emotion when on that September 17 Benja- 
min Franklin arose to state his reasons for signing the 
completed document. The spirit of generosity and prac- 



THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 163 

tical wisdom that ruled the convention breathed in 

his words: 

"I confess that there are several parts of this Consti- 
tution which I do not at present approve, but I am not 
sure I shall never approve them. For, having lived 
long, I have experienced many instances of being 
obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, 
to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I 
once thought right but found to be otherwise. It is 
therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to 
doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to 
the judgment of others. 

"Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, because I 
expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is 
not the best. ... I hope, therefore, that for our own 
sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of pos- 
terity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recom- 
mending this Constitution wherever our influence may 
extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors 
to the means of having it well administered." 

A unanimous vote of the States represented was cast 
for the Constitution. But it had to be referred to the 
legislatures of the States for ratification, and serious 
opposition arose in several States, including New York. 
Here it was that Hamilton and Madison did rare work. 
Their "Federalist" had much to do with winning New 
York. You can see the clear reasoning of these papers 
from the following quotation. It is from the 51st paper 
of the "Federalist," probably written by Madison, and 
is a defense of the system of checks and balances of the 
Constitution with which you are already familiar : 



164 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. 
The interest of the man must be connected with the 
constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflec- 
tion on human nature that such devices should be neces- 
sary to control the abuses of government. But what 
is government itself but the greatest of all reflections 
on human nature. If men were angels, no government 
would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, 
neither external nor internal controls on government 
would be necessary. In framing a government which 
is to be administered by men over men, the great diffi- 
culty lies in this: you must first enable the government 
to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it 
to control itself." 

By July, 1788, the Constitution had been ratified by 
nine States and therefore, under its terms (Art. VII), 
went into effect. North Carolina held out until 1789 
and Rhode Island until 1791. Meantime the first 
presidential election had been held, in January, 1789, 
and on April 30 George Washington was inaugurated 
at Federal Hall, in New York City, the first President 
of the United States. 

The Growth of Nationalism. — Oddly enough there was 
little dispute in the constitutional convention over the 
point that was to harass the country for seventy-five 
years, until settled for all time by the Civil War. That 
was the broad question of how firmly united the States 
were under the Constitution of 1789, whether, in fact, 
a r true nation had been created, with ample power to 
perpetuate itself. As a matter of fact the Convention 
of 1787 could not have gone farther than it did in creat- 



THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 165 

ing a strong national government. The Constitution 
never would have been accepted by the States had our 
modern theory of nationalism been expressly adopted. 
It was necessary to leave the definition of this issue to 
coming generations. 

In the gradual development of national powers no 
American played a greater part than John Marshall, 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835. 
His name deserves to rank with the greatest names of 
the Convention of 1787, for it was his great intellect 
that gave life to their work and made a strong and united 
America possible. He stands with the greatest judges 
of any country or any time. His work was not as 
conspicuous as that of generals or Presidents, but it 
was not less vital to our national safety. Under his 
leadership the Supreme Court upheld the liberal construc- 
tion of the "elastic clause" (Art. I, Sec. 8, Par. 18) and 
prevented any encroachment by the States upon the 
powers essential to the preservation of the Union. 

The railroads brought the different parts of the 
country closer together and aided the national spirit. 
The great movement to the West and the development 
of new States without the old prejudices and traditions 
made for unity. The War of 1812 and the war with 
Mexico strengthened patriotism and gave the national 
government new vigor. 

The coming spirit of union in the country was never 
better stated than by Daniel Webster in his famous 
"Reply to Hayne," a speech delivered in the Senate in 
1830. Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, had spoken in 
defense of the doctrine of States' rights and "nullifica- 



166 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

tion," that is, that a State had the right to nullify or 
set aside an act of Congress. The concluding words 
of Webster's speech were: 

"When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the 
last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining 
on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glo- 
rious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belliger- 
ent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may 
be, with fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and linger- 
ing glance, rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the 
republic, now known and honored throughout the 
earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies 
streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased 
or polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its 
motto no such miserable interrogatory as, 'What is all 
this worth?' Nor those other words of delusion and 
folly, ' Liberty first, and Union afterwards ' ; but every- 
where, spread all over in characters of living light, 
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea 
and over the land, and in every wind under the whole 
heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true Ameri- 
can heart — 'Liberty and Union, now and forever, one 
and inseparable V" 

The land "drenched with fraternal blood" which 
Webster prophetically described came to pass in 1861 
over the issue of secession, the right that the Southern 
States claimed to secede, that is, quit the Union. This 
was the culminating fight in the long dispute over the 
character of the federal government created in 1787. 
In his first inaugural, in 1861, President Lincoln defined 
his stand: 



THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 167 

"I hold that in contemplation of universal law and 
of the Constitution the Union of these States is per- 
petual." 

The victory for the Union ended this issue for all 
time. The final theory of the nation was expressed by 
the Supreme Court in the declaration that ours is "an 
indestructible union of indestructible States. " 

"The Indestructible States."— Despite the victory for 
the principle of perpetual union, the need for the 
States exists as much to-day as ever. Ours is still a 
double government. The question now is the practical 
one of how far it is wise to increase national governmental 
activities, since the point surely exists at which the 
States will lose their self-respect and their efficiency as 
self-governing units. Home rule is still a vital princi- 
ple of our government, as we have seen. It is a vital 
faith in America that the States must be preserved in 
full force and power. Events have necessarily increased 
the duties of the national government. It is the fear 
of many that the point has already been reached where 
the vigor of the States will be impaired. Those who 
believe in a strong national government feel that this 
is not so. It is not a question easily settled and it will 
undoubtedly fall to every reader of this book to help 
settle it. You must do so with a knowledge of our his- 
tory and a clear understanding of the nature of our 
double government. 

The Amendments. — There are two methods of amend- 
ing the Constitution provided: 1. By a convention 
called by Congress upon the application of the legisla- 
tures of two-thirds of the States (but amendments pro- 



168 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

posed by such a convention must thereafter be ratified 
by the legislatures or by conventions of three-fourths of 
the States, whichever Congress directs). 2. By amend- 
ments proposed by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses 
and ratified by three-fourths of the States as under 1. 
(Art. V.) The first method has never been used. 
Eighteen amendments have now been passed by the 
second method. 

The first ten of these constitute the Bill of Rights 
and were adopted in 1791. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, 
and Fifteenth grew out of the Civil War, to confirm the 
emancipation of the negro and seek to insure him the 
ballot. These were adopted from 1865 to 1870. After 
another long interval the Sixteenth Amendment was 
passed enabling Congress to pass an income tax upon a 
fair basis. This was in 1913. In the same year the 
Seventeenth Amendment providing for the direct elec- 
tion of senators was ratified. In 1919 the Eighteenth 
Amendment ordaining national prohibition was ratified. 

Thus after an interval of forty-three years three 
amendments were passed within six years. There have 
been some to argue that the Constitution was too diffi- 
cult of amendment and the record of the years from 
1791 to 1913 was pointed to as bearing out their conten- 
tion. But the recent amendments tend to show that the 
country has no difficulty in passing amendments when 
it has fully made up its mind. 



CHAPTER XX 
YOUR GOVERNMENT 

The Voters to Come.— The boys and girls of to-day are 
the voters of to-morrow. The government will be 
theirs to make of it what they will. All the wisdom of 
the past, alone, cannot make a government successful. 
The fate of America rests with each generation. We 
have a wonderful machine, but it is only a machine, and 
it will run well or ill exactly as the voters direct. That 
is why it is the duty of every American to learn how his 
government works, to watch it, and to the utmost of his 
ability play his part in running it. 

Change.— Our Constitution provides for changes and 
it has been repeatedly changed in important particulars. 
It was the intention of the makers of our Constitution 
that it should be changed when occasion required. All 
that was insisted upon was that there should be time 
for reflection and that something more than a bare 
majority vote should be agreed. That must be our 
attitude to-day. We should reverence our Constitu- 
tion for its noble history and its great wisdom. We 
should reflect long before deciding to alter it. But if 
new conditions or new wisdom convince us that a change 
is needed we should not hesitate to vote for it. 

Socialism.— There are few limits to the changes which 
the people of the nation could make in the Constitution 
if they saw fit. They could abandon our whole system 
of private ownership and establish a wholly socialistic 

169 



170 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

state if they wished. That is, they could turn over all 
the means of production, land, factories, etc., to the state 
and let them be run co-operatively. The country has 
already turned over a few of our public utilities to the 
government to own and run. Some people think that 
more of such utilities should be owned by the govern- 
ment. Many others think not. The question is solely 
one of efficiency and justice and individual develop- 
ment. Will further socialistic steps produce the great- 
est good for the greatest number or not? The people 
have the power to decide and do whatever they think 
best. As soon as the bulk of the American people are 
convinced that the government should own and run all 
industry they can make it so own and run it. At 
present the overwhelming majority of Americans prefer 
private ownership. They like the freedom and chance 
for individual success that it gives, the incentive it offers 
every one to develop and forge ahead. They have 
watched our experiments in government ownership and 
feel that government ownership of all industry would 
produce nothing less than national disaster. But the 
minority of socialists or of any other political belief 
have only to convince the people that their plan is better 
and their reform is won. 

Bolshevism. — The only real limits upon our government 
are that it could not be made a government of riot 
or a government by classes. In the course of the Rus- 
sian Revolution the Bolshevist government for a time 
held power by force. The theory seemed to be that 
the Bolshevist leaders knew better what the people 
wanted than the people themselves and therefore were 



YOUR GOVERNMENT 171 

justified in imposing their ideas upon the nation by 
whatever tyranny and bloodshed were necessary. 

That is one sort of government that could not be 
conducted under our Constitution by any process of 
amendment. Orderly compliance with law and with 
the will of the majority are the foundation of our whole 
system. Destroy that foundation and you destroy 
America. With it you would destroy the greatest de- 
gree of liberty that has ever been attained by human 
beings, the liberty of order and fair play to all. 

Soviet Rule vs. Our Representative System. — Equally 
antagonistic to our American theory is the Soviet 
government which the Bolshevists of Russia set up. In 
our government no public officer represents any class. 
He is elected by the votes of all, rich and poor, bankers, 
farmers, carpenters, miners, every one, and he must act 
for all. This is true of President, governor, legislator, 
judge, right down to the trustee of the smallest village. 
In the Soviet system, each factory, each class of work- 
man, elects its class representative, and thus the national 
legislature is an assemblage of special delegates each 
looking out for the interests of his own special class. 

This is not a wholly new idea. In the beginnings of 
representative government in England, classes and in- 
terests were largely represented. But with the growth 
of the democratic idea, this system was gradually aban- 
doned and it survives now in England only in the all 
but obsolete House of Lords, wherein the church is repre- 
sented by bishops and the nobility by the lords. The 
Soviet system may possibly be best suited to Russia, 
where 90 per cent of the peasant® can neither read nor 



172 THE LAND OF FAIR PLAY 

write. But it is a backward and primitive system by 
comparison with our highly developed democracy and 
to attempt to introduce it in America would be to over- 
turn our whole Constitution and government and destroy 
the progress of centuries. 

Americans All. — The greatest source of injustice and un- 
fairness in America to-day is the ignorance of our lan- 
guage and customs among recently arrived immigrants. 
Such episodes as the Lawrence (Massachusetts) strikes 
of 1912 and 1919, with suffering and loss to thousands, are 
due primarily to the industrial weakness of these classes. 
The foreigners who cannot speak English herd together 
in alien communities, they continue their old standards 
of living, they cannot ask for their rights. 

The truth is that America was planned for a nation of 
equals. It gives fair play to all who know how to play 
the game. We are coming to realize that if we are to 
have a happy, prosperous people throughout the nation 
we must end these alien communities. We must Ameri- 
canize our immigrants as rapidly as possible through 
the public schools, through night schools, through re- 
ducing the massing of alien groups in our large cities 
as much as possible. 

We must all be Americans. It is the duty of every 
newcomer to our shores to learn English and become 
naturalized and become a full-fledged American as soon 
as possible. It is the duty of older Americans to help 
him in every way. Only if our people are Americans in 
speech and custom and understanding can our land 
of fair play reach its full promise of good-will to 
all men. 5 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I 

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Representatives. 

Section 2. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed 
of members chosen every second year by the people of the several 
States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications 
requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legis- 
lature. 

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained 
to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of 
that State in which he shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes l shall be apportioned among 
the several States which may be included within this Union, according 
to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to 
the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for 
a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all 
other persons. 1 The actual enumeration shall be made within three 
years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and 
within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall 
by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one 
for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one 
representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State 
of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts 
eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, 
New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, 
Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, 
and Georgia three. 

1 Partly superseded by the 14th Amendment, p. 187. 

173 



174 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, 
the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and 
other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section 3. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of 
two senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for 
six years; and each senator shall have one vote. 1 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the 
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at 
the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration 
of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth 
year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if va- 
cancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the 
legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary 
appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall 
then fill such vacancies. 1 

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the 
age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, 
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for 
which he shall be chosen. 

4. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president 
pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall 
exercise the office of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 
When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. 
When the President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall 
preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of 
two thirds of the members present. 

7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than 
to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office 
of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party con- 
victed shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, 
judgment and punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections 
for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by 
the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make 
or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

1 See the 17th Amendment, p. 188. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 175 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such 
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall 
K y law appoint a different day. 

Section 5. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, 
returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each 
shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may 
adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the atten- 
dance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties 
as each House may provide. 

2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish 
its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of 
two thirds, expel a member. 

3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from 
time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their 
judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of 
either House on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those 
present, be entered on the journal. 

4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without 
the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6. 1. The senators and representatives shall receive a 
compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out 
of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except 
treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest 
during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and 
in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate 
in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he 
was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the 
United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments 
whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person 
holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either 
House during his continuance in office. 

Section 7. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the 
House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur 
with amendments as on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives 
and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the 
President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if 
not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it 
shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their 
journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration 
two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, 



176 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall 
likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, 
it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses 
shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons 
voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each 
House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented 
to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, 
unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which 
case it shall not be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a 
question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the 
United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved 
by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules 
and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Section 8. 1. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for 
the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all 
duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United 
States; 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
several States, and with the Indian tribes; 

4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws 
on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, 
and fix the standard of weights and measures; 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities 
and current coin of the United States; 

7. To establish post offices and post roads; 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing 
for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their 
respective writings and discoveries; 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Gourt; 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the 
high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make 
rules concerning captures on land and water; 

12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to 
that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 

13. To provide and maintain a navy; 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 177 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land 
and naval forces; 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of 
the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions ; 

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, 
and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the ser- 
vice of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the ap- 
pointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia 
according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over 
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of 
particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of 
the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority 
over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State 
in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, 
dockyards, and other needful buildings; and 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carry- 
ing into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested 
by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in 
any department or officer thereof. 

Section 9. 1. The migration or importation of such persons as 
any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not 
be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importa- 
tion, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may 
require it. 

3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

4. No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in propor- 
tion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 1 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or 
revenue to the ports of one State over those of another: nor shall 
vessels bound to, or from, one State be obliged to^enter, clear, or pay 
duties in another. 

7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence 
of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of 
the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published 
from time to time. 

8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and 

1 See the 16th Amendment, p. 188. 



178 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, with- 
out the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, 
office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign 

State. 

Section 10. 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or 
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; 
emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in 
payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex 'post facto law, or law 
impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be ab- 
solutely necessary for executing its inspection laws: and the net 
produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or 
exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and 
all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Con- 
gress. 

3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty 
of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into 
any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, 
or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger 
as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II 

Section 1. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President 
of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the 
term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for 
the same term, be elected, as follows : 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of 
senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the 
Congress: but no senator or representative, or person holding an office 
of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of 
the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all 
the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list 
they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the govern- 
ment of the United States, directed to the president of the Senate. 
The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes 
shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of 
votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 179 

have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House 
of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for 
President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest 
on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. 
But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the 
representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this 
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the 
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 
In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the 
greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. 
But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate 
shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President. 1 

3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, 
and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be 
the same throughout the United States. 

4. No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the 
United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall 
be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible 
to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, 
and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

5. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, 
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said 
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress 
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or 
inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what 
officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, 
until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a 
compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during 
the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
within that period any other emolument from the United States, or 
any of them. 

7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the 
following oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 
I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, 
and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the 
Constitution of the United States." 

Section 2. 1. The President shall be commander in chief of the 
army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several 
States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he 

1 This paragraph was in force only from 1788 to 1803. It was super- 
seded by the 12th Amendment, p. 186. 



180 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of 
the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of 
their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves 
and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of 
impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present 
concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the 
United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided 
for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by 
law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think 
proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads 
of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which 
shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress 
information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their con- 
sideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; 
he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either 
of them, and in case of disagreement between them with respect to 
the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he 
shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public 
ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and 
shall commission all the officers of the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of 
the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, 
and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and mis- 
demeanors. 

ARTICLE III 

Section 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may 
from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the 
Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good be- 
havior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compen- 
sation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 

Section 2. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law 
and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United 
States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; 
— to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and con- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 181 

suls; — to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; — to con- 
troversies to which the United States shall be a party; — to controversies 
between two or more States; — between a State and citizens of another 
State; 1 — between citizens of different States, — between citizens of the 
same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and be- 
tween a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or 
subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and 
consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court 
shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before men- 
tioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as 
to law and to fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations 
as the Congress shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be 
by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes 
shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, 
the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law 
have directed. 

Section 3. 1. Treason against the United States, shall consist 
only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giv- 
ing them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted] of treason 
unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on 
confession in open court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of 
treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or 
forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV 

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the 
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. 
And the Gongress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which 
such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect 
thereof. 

Section 2. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all 
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, 
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on 
demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, 
be delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the 
crime. 

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 

1 See the 11th Amendment, p. 185. 



182 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall 
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such serivce or labor 
may be due. 

Section 3. 1. New States may be admitted by the Gongress into 
this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the 
jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junc- 
tion of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of 
the legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property be- 
longing to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall 
be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of 
any particular State. 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in 
this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of 
them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the 
executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic 
violence. 

ARTICLE V 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the 
application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall 
call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, 
shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution 
when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States, 
or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other 
mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that 
no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses 
in the ninth section of the first article; and that no State, without its 
consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI 

1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the 
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United 
States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall 
be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be 
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 183 



anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithstanding. . 

3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the 
members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial 
officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be 
bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no 
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or 
public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratify- 
ing the same. 

Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present 
the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of 
the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we 
have hereunto subscribed our names, 
George Washington, President and Deputy from Virginia. 

New Hampshire. — John Lang- 
don, Nicholas Gilman. 

Massachusetts. — Nathaniel Gor- 
ham, Rufus King. 

Connecticut. — W m . Samuel 
Johnson, Roger Sherman. 

New York. — Alexander Hamil- 
ton. 



New Jersey.— William Living- 
ston, William Patterson, David 
Brearley, Jonathan Dayton. 

P ennsylvania . — Benjamin 
Franklin, Robert Morris, Thomas 
Fitzsimons, James Wilson, Thomas 
Mifflin, George Clymer, Jared In- 
gersoll, Gouverneur Morris. 

Attest, William Jackson, Secretary. 



Delaware. — George Read, John 
Dickinson, Jacob Broom, Gunning 
Bedford, Jr., Richard Bassett. 

Maryland.— James McHenry, 
Daniel Carroll, Daniel of St. Tho. 
Jenifer. 

Virginia. — John Blair, James 
Madison, Jr. 

North Carolina .—-William 
Blount, Hugh Williamson, Rich- 
ard Dobbs Spaight. 

South Carolina. — John Rut- 
ledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
ney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce 
Butler. 

Georgia.— William Few, Abra- 
ham Baldwin. 



184 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Articles in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of the 
United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the 
legislatures of the several States pursuant to the fifth article of the 
original Constitution. 

?*;-. ARTICLE I 1 

Gongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, 
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of 
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, 
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 



ARTICLE II 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free 
State the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be in- 
fringed. 

ARTICLE III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without 
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be 
prescribed by law. 

; ARTICLE IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be 
violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, sup- 
ported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place 
to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 



ARTIGLE V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise in- 
famous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, 
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, 
when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any 
person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of 
life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a wit- 
ness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, with- 
out due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public 
use without just compensation. 

1 The first ten Amendments were adopted in 1791. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 185 

ARTICLE VI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have 
been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature 
and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against 
him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, 
and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

ARTICLE VII 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United 
Statesman according to the rules of the common law. 

ARTICLE VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not_be 
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

ARTICLE X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitu- 
tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
respectively, or to the people. 

i 

ARTICLE XI 1 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to 
extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against 
one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or 
subjects of any foreign State. 

1 Adopted in 1798. 



186 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 



ARTICLE XII * 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be 
an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in 
their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots, 
the person voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinct 
lists of all persons voted for as President and of all persons voted for 
as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists 
they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the govern- 
ment of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; — 
The President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes 
shall then be counted; — The person having the greatest number of 
votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a ma- 
jority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person 
have such majority, then from the persons having the highest num- 
bers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, 
the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the 
President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken 
by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a 
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from 
two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be 
necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not 
choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon 
them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice 
President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other 
constitutional disability of the President. The person having the 
greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, 
and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers 
on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President; a quorum for 
the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, 
and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall 
be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. 

ARTICLE XIII 2 

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except a9 
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 

1 Adopted in 1804. 2 Adopted in 1865. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 187 

shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their juris- 
diction. 

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appro- 
priate legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV 1 

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject 
to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the 
State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law 
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United 
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop- 
erty, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its 
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of 
persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the 
right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President 
and Vice President of the United States, representatives in Congress, 
the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the 
legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such 
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, 
or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other 
crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the pro- 
portion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the 
whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or 
elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or 
military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having 
previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of 
the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an 
executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of 
the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion 
against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But 
Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such 
disability. 

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized 
by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties 
for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be ques- 
tioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or 
pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion 
against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation 

1 Adopted in 1868. 



188 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held 
illegal and void. . . 

5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legis- 
lation, the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XV 1 

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on 
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Gongress shall have power to enforce this article 
by appropriate legislation. 

ARTIGLE XVI 2 

The Gongress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, 
from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the 
several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. 
k 

ARTICLE XVII ■ 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators 
from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each 
senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the 
qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the 

State legislature. 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any btate in tne 
Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of elec- 
tion to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State 
may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments 
until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may 

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election 
or term of any senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the 
Constitution. 

ARTICLE XVIII* 

1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manu- 
facture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the im- 

» Adopted in 1870. 

2 Passed July, 1909; proclaimed February 25, 1913. 

" Passed May, 1912, in lieu of paragraph one, Section 3, Article I, of tne 
Constitution and so much of paragraph two of the same Section as relates 
to the filling of vacancies; proclaimed May 31, 1913. 

♦Passed January 16, 1919; proclaimed January 29, 1919. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 189 

portation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United 
States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage 
purposes is hereby prohibited. 

2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power 
to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified 
as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of the several 
States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the 
date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 



nr.r o i iq-ip 



LIBRA 



RY OF CONGRESS 



029 809 750 3 



